The English reading comprehension part of the Swedish Scholastic Achievement Test - ELF
Short description
The Swedish Scholastic Achievement Test has existed in some form since 1977, with the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) as the main responsible unit. Project management and construction of most parts of the exam are located at Umeå University, where the current project manager is Christina Wikström. In 1992, an English reading comprehension component (ELF) was introduced and ever since then, responsibility for this component test has been with the University of Gothenburg. The current project manager for the ELF exam is John Löwenadler.
The research conducted within the ELF project is closely connected to the constant development striving to increase the potential of the test to serve as a powerful selection tool for higher education. A central issue in this regard concerns differences in results between male and female test takers, age-related differences, and differences due to ethnic background.
Possible effects of the test on English teaching in upper secondary school have also been investigated. More specifically, the importance of the text content for results for, for instance, male and female test takers, has been studied and compared with the more general language and reading comprehension proficiency that the ELF test aims at measuring.
In addition, studies have been conducted on underlying reading comprehension processes activated by different types of test formats and question types, for example with regard to English language ability and general reading comprehension ability.
Project Group
- Associate Professor John Löwenadler (project leader)
- Professor Liss Kerstin Sylvén
- Professor Sölve Ohlander
- Dr Richard La Bontee
- Administrator Maria Hulthén
Publications
Löwenadler, John (2023). Trends in Swedish and English Reading Comprehension Ability among Swedish Adolescents: A Study of SweSAT Data 2012–2018. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 67 (4), 591-606.
Sylvén, Liss Kerstin & Löwenadler, John. (2023). Let's Play videos and L2 academic vocabulary. I Mark Peterson & Nasser Jabbari (red.) Digital games in language learning. Case studies and applications. London: Routledge.
Löwenadler, John (2019). Patterns of variation in the interplay of language ability and general reading comprehension ability in L2 reading. Language Testing, 36 (3), 369-390.
Sylvén, Liss Kerstin & Ohlander, Sölve (2019). English Reading Comprehension. I Liss Kerstin Sylvén (red.) Investigating Content and Language Integrated Learning. Insights from Swedish High Schools, 136-151. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ohlander, Sölve (2006). Etnisk bias i högskoleprovet ? Engelsk läsförståelse jämfört med andra delprov. I Ulrika Tornberg (red.) Mångkulturella aspekter på språkundervisningens kommunikativa aspekter. En konferensrapport. Örebro: Örebro universitet.
Reuterberg, Sven-Eric (2003). Vilken betydelse har utländsk bakgrund för resultatet på högskoleprovet ? (II). Högskoleverkets rapportserie 2003: 23 R. Högskoleverket.
Reuterberg, Sven-Eric & Ohlander, Sölve (1999). Engelsk läsförståelse i högskoleprovet. En analys av reguljärprov och utprövningsversioner hösten 1998. IPD-rapport 1999:09. Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik.
