9  Elision-Expressive

9.1 Task Description

Children hear a word and are prompted to take away part of it. They are then asked to say aloud what remains after the specified unit has been removed.

9.2 Construct

The Expressive Elision task measures phonological awareness and auditory manipulation skills. Students hear a word and are asked to delete a specific linguistic unit (compound word, syllable, or phoneme), then verbally produce the portion of the word or non-word that remains. This task requires accurate auditory processing, lexical retrieval, and articulation, providing insight into students’ phonological processing and expressive language development.

9.3 Item Development

An original list of words was derived from curricula used in both English and dual-language programs in California. The list was later extended by researchers by selecting words that fit the selection criteria presented below for Elision-Receptive and Elision-Expressive to increase the item pool.

For Elision-Receptive researchers selected words for which, when deleting a unit of language (at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels), a new word was generated. This word could then be imaged and the child could select what word was left (i.e. What is cowboy without cow?)The deleted unit of language could be located at the beginning of the word, at the end of the word, or in middle positions. To ensure phonetic representation of different sounds of the language, researchers excluded some items in which the same syllables and phonemes were repeated multiple times (e.g., syllable blends with [ɹ̠ ] and /l/ phonemes).

In the Elision-Expressive, children listen to a word, remove the designated part, and verbally produce the remaining segment of the word. The item involved a mix of real and nonwords, the location of the deletion varied as did the unit of deletion from compund word, to syllable, to phoneme.

9.4 Scoring

Dichotomous fixed response format of 0 points for incorrect responses or non-responses and 1 point for correct ones.

9.5 Calibration Samples

Table 9.1: Demographic Characteristics of Calibration Samples for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 603		 G1
N = 1,769		 G2
N = 1,369		 K
N = 594		 G1
N = 636		 G2
N = 548
Timepoint





    Spring 2023 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 594 (100%) 636 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Fall 2023 592 (98%) 658 (37%) 689 (50%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 332 (61%)
    Winter 2024 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 216 (39%)
    Fall 2024 11 (1.8%) 1,111 (63%) 680 (50%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Administration Format





    CAT 11 (1.8%) 1,111 (63%) 680 (50%)


    Forms 592 (98%) 658 (37%) 689 (50%) 594 (100%) 636 (100%) 548 (100%)
Race





    American/Alaskan Native 15 (2.5%) 63 (3.6%) 26 (2.0%) 9 (1.6%) 7 (1.2%) 3 (0.5%)
    Asian 73 (12%) 166 (9.6%) 132 (10%) 7 (1.2%) 6 (1.0%) 5 (0.9%)
    Black/African American 73 (12%) 190 (11%) 163 (12%) 5 (0.9%) 4 (0.7%) 3 (0.5%)
    Not reported 131 (22%) 303 (17%) 230 (18%) 357 (63%) 381 (63%) 353 (65%)
    Other 111 (19%) 257 (15%) 138 (11%) 46 (8.1%) 48 (7.9%) 24 (4.4%)
    White 190 (32%) 755 (44%) 616 (47%) 141 (25%) 161 (27%) 159 (29%)
    Unknown 10 35 64 29 29 1
Ethnicity





    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 325 (54%) 1,180 (69%) 839 (65%) 516 (97%) 549 (97%) 503 (94%)
    Intentional nonreport 10 (1.7%) 6 (0.4%) 3 (0.2%) 0 (0%) 1 (0.2%) 2 (0.4%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 262 (44%) 521 (31%) 447 (35%) 15 (2.8%) 18 (3.2%) 30 (5.6%)
    Unknown 6 62 80 63 68 13
Gender





    Female 306 (51%) 880 (52%) 636 (49%) 314 (59%) 339 (60%) 297 (54%)
    Male 292 (49%) 804 (48%) 649 (51%) 222 (41%) 229 (40%) 250 (46%)
    Non-binary 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0.2%)
    Unknown 5 85 84 58 68 0
Home Language





    English 413 (70%) 925 (55%) 791 (63%) 76 (13%) 74 (12%) 50 (9.2%)
    Spanish 110 (19%) 660 (40%) 373 (30%) 473 (84%) 525 (87%) 484 (89%)
    Other 63 (11%) 83 (5.0%) 91 (7.3%) 16 (2.8%) 6 (1.0%) 7 (1.3%)
    Unknown 17 101 114 29 31 7
English Proficiency Label





    (Re-)Classified Proficient 38 (7.2%) 114 (7.2%) 108 (8.7%) 47 (9.5%) 48 (8.7%) 81 (16%)
    English Learner 145 (28%) 599 (38%) 354 (29%) 393 (79%) 440 (80%) 394 (76%)
    English-only 342 (65%) 878 (55%) 776 (63%) 57 (11%) 61 (11%) 44 (8.5%)
    Unknown 78 178 131 97 87 29
Ever IEP/504 38 (8.0%) 144 (10%) 120 (12%) 30 (11%) 23 (12%) 35 (11%)
    Unknown 128 334 339 314 448 237

9.6 Psychometric Analysis

9.6.1 Basic Item Statistics

We excluded 0 items from the English task and 0 items from the Spanish task based on low response counts (n < 90). 0 items were excluded because they had no variance in the Spanish task, and 0 items in the English task. Additionally, we excluded 0 items from the English task and 0 items from the Spanish task based on low point-biserial correlations (r < 0.2). Table 9.2 summarizes the basic item characteristics, Figure 9.1 shows the relationship between point-biserial correlations and the proportion of correct responses for each item.

Table 9.2: Basic Item Statistics Before and After Application of Exclusion Criteria, for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
English
Spanish
Characteristic
Before Excl.
After Excl.
Before Excl.
After Excl.
N = 139 N = 139 N = 117 N = 117
No. of Responses 280 (184) 280 (184) 227 (176) 227 (176)
Proportion Correct 0.36 (0.18) 0.36 (0.18) 0.31 (0.13) 0.31 (0.13)
Point-biserial Correlation 0.54 (0.12) 0.54 (0.12) 0.61 (0.11) 0.61 (0.11)
Excluded (n < 90) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Excluded (pbis < .2) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Excluded (no variation) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Figure 9.1: Scatterplot Showing Point-biserial (Item-total) Correlations and Proportion of Correct Responses for the English (Panel A) and Spanish (Panel B) Expressive Elision Tasks

9.6.2 Rasch Analysis

9.6.2.1 Item Location Estimates

Figure 9.2: Scatterplot Showing Item Location and Proportion of Correct Response for the English (Panel A) and Spanish (Panel B) Expressive Elision Tasks

9.6.2.2 Item Fit Statistics

Table 9.3: Frequencies of Item Misfit Categories Based on Infit/Outfit MSE Values for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
English
Spanish
Infit MSE
A B C D Total A B C D Total
Outfit MSE
A 120 0 0 0 120 103 0 0 0 103
B 1 0 0 0 1 8 0 0 0 8
C 8 0 0 0 8 4 0 0 0 4
D 9 0 1 0 10 2 0 0 0 2
Total 138 0 1 0 139 117 0 0 0 117

9.6.2.3 Person Location Estimates

Figure 9.3: Scatterplot Showing Person Location Estimates (Obtained using the MLE method) and the Proportion of Correct Responses for English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks

9.6.2.4 Person Fit Statistics

Table 9.4: Frequencies of Person Misfit Categories Based on Infit/Outfit MSE Values for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
English
Spanish
Infit MSE
A B C D Total A B C D Total
Outfit MSE
A 1,713 0 15 0 1,728 1,245 0 5 0 1,250
B 746 782 0 0 1,528 208 814 0 0 1,022
C 75 0 38 3 116 79 0 25 0 104
D 99 0 53 36 188 5 0 19 7 31
Total 2,633 782 106 39 3,560 1,537 814 49 7 2,407

9.6.2.5 Distribution of Theta Estimates

Figure 9.4: Distribution of Theta Estimates for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks

9.6.2.6 Wright Maps

Figure 9.5: Wright Maps Showing the Relationship Between Item and Person Location Estimates for the English Expressive Elision Task
Figure 9.6: Wright Maps Showing the Relationship Between Item and Person Location Estimates for the Spanish Expressive Elision Task

9.6.2.7 Model Summary

Table 9.5: Summary of Rasch Model Statistics for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
English
Spanish
Item
Person
Item
Person
Characteristic N = 139 N = 3,560 N = 117 N = 2,407
Logit Scale Location 1.46 (1.95) 0.27 (-1.37, 1.45) 2.16 (1.46) 0.33 (-1.77, 1.77)
Outfit 1.15 (0.64) 0.55 (0.36, 0.85) 0.94 (0.36) 0.60 (0.08, 0.91)
Infit 1.00 (0.13) 0.74 (0.53, 0.98) 0.99 (0.12) 0.72 (0.10, 0.94)
Reliability of Separation 0.8529 0.7923 0.8268 0.6924
9.6.2.7.1 Final Number of Items

Following the exclusion of items with point-biserial correlations < .20 and items with poor fit statistics, the final versions of the task contain 139 and 117 for the English and Spanish task, respectively.

9.7 Criterion Validity Evidence

9.7.1 Sample

Table 9.6: Demographic Characteristics of the Concurrent Criterion Validity Evidence Samples for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 248		 G1
N = 222		 G2
N = 202		 K
N = 51		 G1
N = 167		 G2
N = 190
Timepoint





    Winter 2024 248 (100%) 222 (100%) 202 (100%) 51 (100%) 167 (100%) 190 (100%)
Race





    American/Alaskan Native 5 (2.0%) 3 (1.4%) 1 (0.5%) 0 (0%) 4 (2.4%) 1 (0.5%)
    Asian 33 (13%) 36 (16%) 8 (4.3%) 2 (3.9%) 2 (1.2%) 0 (0%)
    Black/African American 26 (11%) 27 (12%) 34 (18%)


    Not reported 28 (11%) 29 (13%) 13 (7.1%) 28 (55%) 116 (70%) 120 (63%)
    Other 72 (29%) 44 (20%) 3 (1.6%) 11 (22%) 5 (3.0%) 10 (5.3%)
    White 81 (33%) 83 (37%) 125 (68%) 10 (20%) 38 (23%) 58 (31%)
    Unknown 3 0 18 0 2 1
Ethnicity





    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 99 (40%) 93 (42%) 120 (60%) 46 (90%) 156 (93%) 178 (99%)
    Intentional nonreport 7 (2.8%) 2 (0.9%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (1.1%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 142 (57%) 127 (57%) 81 (40%) 5 (9.8%) 11 (6.6%) 0 (0%)
    Unknown 0 0 1 0 0 10
Gender





    Female 125 (50%) 102 (46%) 97 (48%) 32 (63%) 83 (50%) 100 (53%)
    Male 123 (50%) 120 (54%) 105 (52%) 19 (37%) 84 (50%) 90 (47%)
Home Language





    English 183 (75%) 165 (75%) 126 (82%) 6 (12%) 17 (10%) 21 (11%)
    Spanish 30 (12%) 24 (11%) 23 (15%) 44 (86%) 147 (89%) 168 (89%)
    Other 31 (13%) 32 (14%) 5 (3.2%) 1 (2.0%) 1 (0.6%) 0 (0%)
    Unknown 4 1 48 0 2 1
English Proficiency Label





    (Re-)Classified Proficient 10 (4.9%) 17 (7.8%) 11 (7.1%) 6 (13%) 19 (12%) 35 (20%)
    English Learner 46 (23%) 40 (18%) 17 (11%) 40 (83%) 130 (79%) 119 (68%)
    English-only 148 (73%) 160 (74%) 126 (82%) 2 (4.2%) 16 (9.7%) 21 (12%)
    Unknown 44 5 48 3 2 15
Ever IEP/504 17 (8.9%) 21 (12%) 17 (11%) 1 (2.3%) 11 (7.1%) 6 (6.5%)
    Unknown 58 47 48 8 12 97

English Expressive Elision was correlated with the Elision subtest from the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, 2nd Edition (CTOPP-2) test (Wagner et al. 2013). Spanish Expressive Elision was correlated with the Deletion subtest from the Test of Phonological Awareness in Spanish (TPAS)(Riccio et al. 2004).

Table 9.7: Concurrent Criterion Validity Correlations for the English and Spanish Expressive Elision Tasks
English
Spanish
All
EL
All
Grade n r [CI] n r [CI] n r [CI]
K 248 0.78 [0.72, 0.82] 46 0.73 [0.56, 0.84] 51 0.58 [0.36, 0.74]
G1 222 0.71 [0.64, 0.77] 40 0.66 [0.44, 0.80] 167 0.47 [0.35, 0.58]
G2 202 0.78 [0.73, 0.83] NA NA 190 0.51 [0.39, 0.61]