Listening comprehension in English, as one of the most fundamental skills, has an essential role in the process of learning English. Mokken scale analysis (MSA) is a probabilistic-nonparametric approach to item response theory (IRT) which determines the one-dimensionality and scalability of test. Mokken scaling techniques are a useful tool for…

A major challenge in the widespread application of Mokken scale analysis (MSA) to educational performance assessments is the requirement of complete data, where every rater rates every student. In this study, simulated and real data are used to demonstrate a method by which researchers and practitioners can apply MSA to incomplete rating designs.…

We have documented the significant presence of spontaneous and productive use of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in the speech of five Tunisian boys with autism, an unusual phenomenon. In typical development, MSA is not fully acquired before the late school years. The Arabic language in Tunisia is in a state of diglossia, and (unlike the colloquial…

The need to determine the correct dimensionality of theoretical constructs and generate valid measurement instruments when underlying items are categorical has generated a significant volume of research in the social sciences. This article presents two studies contrasting different categorical exploratory techniques. The first study compares…

Code use, including codeswitching and/or style-shifting, is an important but undertaught aspect of L2 sociolinguistic competence, and an important aspect of L2 learners' translanguaging repertoires. This study examines code use in Arabic--a diglossic language with distinct social uses for the prestige variety (Modern Standard Arabic, MSA) and…

The impacts of COVID-19 on Study abroad (SA) are deep and widespread and potentially affect the factors that guide US undergraduate students' choices as they relate to SA. To investigate them, the present study relies on the MSA (Motivation to SA questionnaire: Anderson & Lawton, 2015) and adds two new groups of factors: language learning and…

Students from marginalized religious backgrounds face myriad challenges on college and university campuses, and negative effects are especially pronounced for Muslim students. Wearing hijab can put college students at a greater risk of marginalization amidst a climate of Islamophobia. Although there is a growing body of research on Muslim college…

Using a sample of college-educated Hispanics from the 2016-2017 American Community Survey we examine the role of potential social networks on the education-occupation mismatch for Hispanics in the U.S. To do this, we use a novel data-driven index to measure the degree of education-occupation mismatch, while potential networks are measured using…

Purpose: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Preschool Language Scales---Fifth Edition (PLS-5 English) among preschool children from low--socioeconomic status (SES) families. Method: The PLS-5 was administered individually to 169 3- to 4-year-old children enrolled in Head Start programs. We carried out a Mokken scale analysis…

This study proposed and tested a new mobbing scale for academicians in higher education institutions. A two-stage methodology consisting of a qualitative approach and quantitative measuring was used in the study. First, mobbing behavior items were developed by using an in-depth interview technique on a group of Turkish academicians. Then, the…

Sociolinguistic variation (SLV) entails that language is affected by social context (i.e. register, pragmatics). Interest in the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation in a second language (L2-SLV), as a key component of communicative competence, has grown exponentially over the past thirty years (Geeslin & Long, 2014). Researchers have…

The present study investigated oral personal narratives elicited from Arabic speaking adolescents with and without hearing loss. Analyses focused on macrostructure, microstructure, and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). For macrostructure, narratives were examined for structural components (abstract, orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution,…

The pandemic has impacted every aspect of academic life, including study abroad (SA), with 93% of programs canceled worldwide in 2020 (IIE, 2020). Long lasting consequences for SA are expected (Dietrich, 2020): a reduction in participation rates, an increase in online SA, and changes both in the nature and the importance of the factors that…

Mokken scale analysis (MSA) is a probabilistic-nonparametric approach to item response theory (IRT) that can be used to evaluate fundamental measurement properties with less strict assumptions than parametric IRT models. This instructional module provides an introduction to MSA as a probabilistic-nonparametric framework in which to explore…

The timing of events (e.g., how long it takes a child to exhibit a particular behavior) is often of interest in developmental science. Multilevel survival analysis (MSA) is useful for examining behavioral timing in observational studies (i.e., video recordings) of children's behavior. We illustrate how MSA can be used to answer 2 types of research…