Development of Exposure to English Scale and Investigation of Exposure Effect to Achievement

Abstract

An absence of a scale for measuring exposure to the English language, which has a significant effect on English achievement, was detected in the literature. For this reason, in this study, a six-dimensional scale was developed to detect the level of English language exposure and its construct validity was tested. The factor structure of the scale was determined by exploratory factor analysis with the data collected from 784 university students, 726 of whom are undergraduate and 58 of whom are Master’s and Ph.D. students. Confirmation of the factor structure of the scale was carried out with a measurement model specified in a structural equation model. A structural equation modeling study was performed along with 233 students from English preparation classes at a university. In the structural model, the effect of exposure to English on the students’ scores received from writing in English, speaking in English and the total score (grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening scores) was examined. It was found that exposure to English has a significant effect on all of the three variables. Exposure to English explained the variance of the speaking variable most, while that effect is the least for the writing variable.

Keywords

• Exposure to English
• Language Acquisition
• Structural Equation Modeling
• Scale Development
• English Achievement

Development of Exposure to English Scale and Investigation of Exposure Effect to Achievement

Abstract

An absence of a scale for measuring exposure to the English language, which has a significant effect on English achievement, was detected in the literature. For this reason, in this study, a six-dimensional scale was developed to detect the level of English language exposure and its construct validity was tested. The factor structure of the scale was determined by exploratory factor analysis with the data collected from 784 university students, 726 of whom are undergraduate and 58 of whom are Master’s and Ph.D. students. Confirmation of the factor structure of the scale was carried out with a measurement model specified in a structural equation model. A structural equation modeling study was performed along with 233 students from English preparation classes at a university. In the structural model, the effect of exposure to English on the students’ scores received from writing in English, speaking in English and the total score (grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening scores) was examined. It was found that exposure to English has a significant effect on all of the three variables. Exposure to English explained the variance of the speaking variable most, while that effect is the least for the writing variable.

Keywords

• Exposure to English
• Language Acquisition
• Structural Equation Modeling
• Scale Development
• English Achievement

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