A Development of the Standard English Listening Test of Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University

Abstract

The purposes of this research were as follows: 1) to develop a standard English listening test for students at Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University and 2) to assess the quality of the standard English listening test for students at Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University. The sample group consisted of 1,498 third-year students in the academic year of 2564 from 8 faculties. The research instrument comprised two sets of standard English listening test items, totaling 100 items each and 200 items overall. Additionally, the standard English listening test was analyzed using the Item Response Theory method. Statistical analysis included percentage, mean, standard deviation, difficulty index, discrimination power, guessing, and test reliability. The research findings indicated that:

1. The two sets of the standard English listening test for Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University are divided into four sections with a total of 100 items each. High-frequency vocabulary, useful for learners and recommended for prior learning, was included in the test by selecting 95% of the most frequently used words. The Index of Consonance (IOC) is 0.99, and the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for both versions is 0.904.
2. The quality assessment of the standard English listening test for Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University, based on the Item Response Theory (IRT) method, revealed that Set 1 had item difficulty scores ranging from 0.70 to 2.47, a discrimination power (b) ranging from -2.23 to 1.62, and distractor functionality ranging from 0.00 to 0.26. Meanwhile, Set 2 had item difficulty scores ranging from 0.31 to 2.48, discrimination power (a) ranging from -1.47 to 2.62, and guessing ranging from 0.00 to 0.29. A total of 56 items in Set 1 and 76 items in Set 2 passed the IRT criteria. The overall number of qualified test items from both sets is 132.