Scores; *Scoring; Test Construction IDENTIFIERS Exploratory Factor Analysis; *Test of Spoken

Administration of the Test of Spoken English (TSE) yields tapes of oral performance on items within six sections of the test. Trained scorers subsequently rate responses using four proficiency scales: pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and overall comprehensibility. This project examined the consistency of statistical relations among TSE scores with the measurement constructs these scores purport to reflect by examining dimensions underlying the scores. Multidimensional scaling analyses revealed that three-dimensional solutions fit the scale intercorrelations with low stress values and that the coordinates of the scales fell into three clusters in three-dimensional space, those clusters being defined primarily by test section rather than by proficiency scales. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that a single dimension dominated the variation of the 18 section-scale scores. However, whe