Development of English Proficiency Test for DRU Students

Abstract

The aims of this research were to 1) develop an English proficiency test for students of Dhonburi Rajabhat University, 2) investigate the quality of the test and 3) organize an English proficiency test bank in the Language Center to serve university students, personnel, and the public. The research instruments were 6 electronic tests with 600 items. The sample was 686 students of Dhonburi Rajabhat University. Item analysis was processed through discrimination, index level of difficulty, index of Item – Objective Congruence (IOC) for content validity and Kuder – Richardson method for reliability. The research findings were 1) students acquired low scores with a mean of 29.13%. Only 2.19% of students passed the exam criteria of 50%. 2) These 6 tests had a high content validity. The index level of difficulty indicated that 80.83% of the items were difficult, and 19.17% were very difficult. These tests were hard for the examinees. However, the purpose of the English proficiency tests was to assess future language competency, researchers needed to maintain a level of language performance. 3) 2 tests including 100 items each, with reliability of 0.84 and 0.77, were selected to establish in the test bank. The research results showed that most of the students have low proficiency in English. Consequently, the institutional sectors should set clear plans to accelerate the development of students' English proficiency.