The Predictive Validity of Assessment Centers in German-Speaking Regions

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Becker ◽  
Stefan Höft ◽  
Marcus Holzenkamp ◽  
Frank M. Spinath

As previous meta-analyses have focused almost solely on English-speaking regions, this study presents the first systematic meta-analytical examination of the predictive validity of assessment centers (ACs) conducted in German-speaking regions. It summarizes 24 validity coefficients taken from 19 studies (N = 3,556), yielding a mean corrected validity of ρ = .396 (80% credibility interval .235 ≤ ρ ≤ .558). ACs with different purposes and different kinds of criterion measures were analyzed separately. Furthermore, target group (internal vs. external candidates), average age of the assessees, inclusion of intelligence measures, number of instruments used, AC duration, as well as time elapsed between AC and criterion assessment were found to moderate the validity.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6485
Author(s):  
Alexander Hodeck ◽  
Jacqueline Tuchel ◽  
Luisa Hente ◽  
Christine von Reibnitz

Sustainability in sports tourism has increased in recent years. Sustainability is a particular focus for diving tourism. This paper analyses the meaning of sustainability to German speaking diving tourists to draw conclusions for the development of tourism strategies. Based on a literature review on the importance of sustainability in diving tourism, an empirical study was designed to understand the importance of the topic within the target group. A total of 174 German-speaking diving tourists were surveyed using an online-questionnaire. The subjects were clustered regarding their sustainable behavior. It could be shown that there is a correlation between age as well as gender and sustainable behavior. A conjoint measurement showed that for diving tourists, ecological aspects are more important than the prize of a diving trip. The gained insights can contribute to establish new and more sustainable offers in diving tourism and thus developing this area of sports tourism more sustainably overall.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-320
Author(s):  
Peter Barrer

Over the past two decades, Prague has cemented itself as a tourist hotspot in the popular imagination. But what of Bratislava, long considered a “poor cousin” to Prague? What images of Bratislava have foreign publics been presented with since the fall of communism in East-Central Europe and the establishment of the Slovak Republic? Building on previous research which has examined visitors’ historical perceptions of Bratislava primarily from a German-speaking perspective, this paper seeks to map the development of Bratislava’s image in media texts from English-speaking countries since 1989 by focusing on two central motifs: Bratislava as a post-communist space and Bratislava as a locus of touristic pleasures (“Partyslava”). The images presented herein will be evaluated and contrasted with local descriptions of Bratislava, thus offering a cross-cultural perspective which will contribute to the wider discussion of popular perceptions of post-communist urban spaces in East-Central Europe.


1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Lidner ◽  
Judith R. Johnston

ABSTRACTFourteen matched pairs of German-speaking and English-speaking language-impaired children, aged 4;5–6;11, were tested for their knowledge of grammatical morphology and expressive vocabulary, using the Grammatical Closure subtest of the ITPA or its German adaptation, Grammatik in the PET, and the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test or the Aktiver Wortschatztest. Children were matched pairwise on the basis of their chronological age, nonverbal IQ, and scores in a sentence imitation and a sentence production task. As predicted, the German-speaking language-impaired children earned higher scores in grammatical morphology and vocabulary than did the English-speaking children. These findings add to a growing body of literature that documents language-specific sensitivity to particular sorts of syntactic devices. They also suggest that the morphological difficulties seen in English-speaking language-impaired children stem in part from the minor functional role played by these forms during the early language learning years.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-313
Author(s):  
Sarah Dolscheid ◽  
Franziska Schleussinger ◽  
Martina Penke

In English, a lexical distinction is drawn between the indefinite determiner “a” and the numeral “one”. English-speaking children also interpret the two terms differently, with an exact, upper bounded interpretation of the numeral “one”, but no upper bounded interpretation of the indefinite determiner “a”. Unlike English, however, German does not draw a distinction between the indefinite determiner and the numeral one but instead uses the same term “ein/e” to express both functions. To find out whether this cross-linguistic difference affects children’s upper bounded interpretation of “ein/e”, we tested German-speaking children and adults in a truth-value-judgment task and compared their performance to English-speaking children. Our results revealed that German-speaking children differed from both English children and German adults. Whereas the majority of German adults interpreted “ein/e” in an upper bounded way (i.e. as exactly one, not two), the majority of German-speaking children favored a non-upper bounded interpretation (thus accepting two as a valid response to “ein/e”). German-speaking children’s proportion of upper bounded responses to “ein/e” was also significantly lower than English children’s upper bounded responses to “one”. However, German children’s rate of upper bounded responses increased once a number-biasing context was provided. These findings suggest that German-speaking children can interpret “ein/e” in an upper bounded way but that they need additional cues in order to do so. When no such cues are present, German-speaking children differ from both German-speaking adults and from their English-speaking peers, demonstrating that cross-linguistic differences can affect the way speakers interpret numbers.


2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna M. Rimmele ◽  
Pius Kern ◽  
Christina Lubinus ◽  
Klaus Frieler ◽  
David Poeppel ◽  
...  

Musical training enhances auditory-motor cortex coupling, which in turn facilitates music and speech perception. How tightly the temporal processing of music and speech are intertwined is a topic of current research. We investigated the relationship between musical sophistication (Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication index, Gold-MSI) and spontaneous speech-to-speech synchronization behavior as an indirect measure of speech auditory-motor cortex coupling strength. In a group of participants (n = 196), we tested whether the outcome of the spontaneous speech-to-speech synchronization test (SSS-test) can be inferred from self-reported musical sophistication. Participants were classified as high (HIGHs) or low (LOWs) synchronizers according to the SSS-test. HIGHs scored higher than LOWs on all Gold-MSI subscales (General Score, Active Engagement, Musical Perception, Musical Training, Singing Skills), but the Emotional Attachment scale. More specifically, compared to a previously reported German-speaking sample, HIGHs overall scored higher and LOWs lower. Compared to an estimated distribution of the English-speaking general population, our sample overall scored lower, with the scores of LOWs significantly differing from the normal distribution, with scores in the ∼30th percentile. While HIGHs more often reported musical training compared to LOWs, the distribution of training instruments did not vary across groups. Importantly, even after the highly correlated subscores of the Gold-MSI were decorrelated, particularly the subscales Musical Perception and Musical Training allowed to infer the speech-to-speech synchronization behavior. The differential effects of musical perception and training were observed, with training predicting audio-motor synchronization in both groups, but perception only in the HIGHs. Our findings suggest that speech auditory-motor cortex coupling strength can be inferred from training and perceptual aspects of musical sophistication, suggesting shared mechanisms involved in speech and music perception.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beate Krieger ◽  
Christina Schulze ◽  
Jillian Boyd ◽  
Ruth Amann ◽  
Barbara Piškur ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Concepts such as participation and environment may differ across cultures. Consequently, to use a measure like the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY) in other than the original English-speaking contexts, cultural adaptation needs to be assured. The aim of this study was to cross-culturally translate and adapt the PEM-CY into German as it is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Methods Fifteen parents of children and adolescents with disabilities from three German speaking countries participated in three rounds of think-aloud interviews. We followed the procedure of cultural equivalence guidelines including two additional steps. Data was analyzed by content analysis using semantic, idiomatic, experiential and conceptual equivalence. Results Results show adaptations mainly focused on experiential and conceptual equivalence. Examples of experiential equivalence included adapting the examples of activities in the PEM-CY to reflect typical ones in German speaking countries. Conceptual equivalence mainly addressed aspects of “involvement” and “environment” of children and adolescents and was reached through adaptations such as enhanced instructions and structures, and additional definitions. Conclusion This study presents a cross-cultural translation and adaptation process to develop a German version of the PEM-CY that is suitable for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As participation and environment are both complex concepts to measure, conceptual equivalence posed the highest challenges for this cultural adaptation. A culturally adapted version of PEM-CY (German) is now available for research, practice and further validation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Carlee Arnett ◽  
Ferran Suñer ◽  
Daniel Pust

Abstract In order to test the efficacy of using cooperation scripts in combination with animations to teach the passive in an advanced language classroom, we designed an intervention study with two groups. The first group received instruction with animations on the grammatical structure of the passive and the second group received the same instruction and animations as the first group, but in addition they were given a cooperation script to use in their small group work. The study uses a quasi-experimental design with a post-test and delayed post-test. The learners were university students in advanced German who had received classroom instruction and spent time in a German-speaking country. Therefore, they had explicit instruction on the morphology and function of the passive as is customary in first- and second-year textbooks for English-speaking learners. This study shows that students with the cooperation script perform better on open-ended tasks than students who worked independently.


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Cope

The study reported here investigates the predictive validity of language assessments by ‘Direct Entry’ programs at an Australian University – programs developed on site for Non English Speaking Background international students, principally to provide (i) pre-entry academic and language preparation and (ii) language assessment for university admissions purposes. All 138 students in the sample had entered degree studies via one of the three programs that made up the locally-developed Direct Entry pathway. Inferential statistics (correlation and regression) showed the assessments awarded by two programs to satisfactorily predict academic outcomes, while predictive validity for one was not demonstrated. Descriptive statistics (mean pass rates and academic averages) then revealed a pattern of relatively poor academic performance in certain university disciplines to which particular Direct Entry programs were dedicated. Informed by principles of language program evaluation, the study’s outcomes were seen as both summative and formative: remedial strategies are accordingly recommended. While the specific relevance of the study’s findings is to the particular institutional context in which the study was conducted, the study instantiates a perspective on language assessment validation of broader relevance in an Australian context where locally-developed Direct Entry programs – about which the research literature is largely silent – are increasingly widespread.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-761

This book on applied physiology fills a gap in postwar medical education in the German-speaking area. It informs the German student regarding the progress made in the English-speaking world and will be especially welcomed by him because from the didactic standpoint it is written simply and is well illustrated. It contains what most students in the clinical field want to know when they relate their bedside problems to underlying physiologic principles. It also focuses attention on important clinical problems.


1977 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-188
Author(s):  
E. G. Johnson ◽  
S. Hilton ◽  
I. MacDonald ◽  
P. Sheaffe ◽  
J. Stark ◽  
...  

The attainments of ninth year migrant pupils whose sixth year assessment had been based on performance on the Ravens Progressive Matrices Test were found to be significantly lower than those of Australians of similar chronological age and intelligence level. Additionally, girls performed better than boys in both groups. The differences, however, were able to be accounted for in terms of performance on a test of Word Knowledge. Implications for the predictive capacity of the Ravens Progressive Matrices Test as well as for the education of non-English speaking migrant children are discussed.


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