While our proficiency-stratified sampling was reasonably successful in recruiting learners of a wide range of proficiency (score range = 18 95 in the TOEFL iBT; see descriptive statistics in Table 5), we were not able to include advanced learners who had obtained TOEFL iBT scores of more than 95.
The students were recruited from different departments at Renmin University of China, so as to cover a wide range of proficiency levels since students are admitted by different departments in terms of their scores of College Entrance Exam (Gaokao).
These results revealed that high scoring test-takers were able to select the correct answer choice, and the VELC Test® items were targeted for a wide range of proficiency levels.
This group was composed of adult Japanese learners of English, including 13 undergraduate and 10 graduate students, 6 English teachers, and 1 professional who used English for business, with a wide range of proficiency from beginning to advanced levels; their initial Criterion® holistic scores ranged from 1 to 6 (the whole score range).
In fact, construct coverage is a major challenge that researchers in L2 pragmatics assessment face, along with issues regarding test practicality, coping with examinees with a wide range of proficiency, and linking test scores to real-world implications (Taguchi and Roever 2017).
Measures of general intellectual functioning (Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices Ravenn et al. 1992) and reading proficiency (Wide Range Achievement Tests-3; Wilkinson 1993) were taken at the time of the first (baseline visit).
For comparison, it should be noted that participants in Study 1 had a wide range of L2 proficiency, whereas those in Study 2 had relatively high L2 proficiency (e.g., TOEFL ITP® average in Time 1 = 507.71; see Table 5), so those in Study 2 may not be generalized to typical Japanese university students learning English as an L2.
This means that the scale can cover a relatively wide range of writing proficiency of those students who take TEM.
The complexity of colonoscopy leads to wide differences in operator proficiency.
The mean accuracy for the remaining subjects was 68% with individual scores ranging from 43% to 85%, confirming a wide range of Kanji proficiency across participants.
