The development and efficiency of the computerized adaptive testing version for the test of Chinese as a foreign language

The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) is a standardized Chinese certificate exam for the non-native speaker Chinese learners. TOCFL is developed by Steering Committee of the Test of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP) since 2006 and proved by Taiwan government. It can be used for applying scholarships in Taiwan and as a Chinese language certificate when apply to college. TOCFL is carried out in more than 30 countries and 60 cities each year. There are about forty thousand test takers every year in the world. The computer based version of TOCFL divided into three bands of tests and can evaluate six grade of proficiency that align to Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Since many test takers felt it difficult to choice the suitable test bands for them to take, the SC-TOP began to developed computerized adaptive testing version of TOCFL (TOCFL-CAT) for listen and reading test. To evaluate the efficiency of TOCFL-CAT compared with non-adaptive TOCFL, a simulation study was carried out. Different items selection rules and stopping rules were used to be the independent variables. The number of items they took to reach the preset test precision level, the root mean square of error (RMSE) of the ability estimation and the percentage of correctly classify (PCC) were calculated to be the dependent variables. Results demonstrated that TOCFL-CAT can save more than 30% of items to reach the same precision level as the non-adaptive TOCFL. The maximum information item selection methods with content and item type limitation were suggested to be used in TOCFL-CAT. The computerized adaptive testing version of TOCFL (TOCFL-CAT) listen and reading test had been carried out since 2016 in Taiwan and some countries in Asia, Europe and America. Copyright © 2019 IACAT.