A Rasch Measure of Test Takers’ Attitude Toward the Versant English Test

Abstract

Despite the steadily increasing application of Rasch modeling in human sciences, few attempts have been made to use the Rasch measurement model to analyze Likert-type scale survey data in the field of language testing. This study investigated test takers’ attitude toward the Versant English Test (VET), a fully automated spoken English test using the Rating Scale Model (RSM) in Rasch measurement. Based on previous research, attitude in this study was conceptualized as a psychological construct consisting of three components: beliefs, opinions, and emotions. A 21-item questionnaire was designed to collect the data from 125 VET test takers. The collected data were then subjected to Rasch analys..