A TENTATIVE SEARCH FOR CONFLATION IN THE EPISTLE TO GALATIANS (2:5; 4:14)

The article presents a tentative search for conflation in the Epistle to Galatians (2:5; 4:14). The purpose of this article is paving the methodological way for further research into conflation by the tentative search for candidates for conflation in the Epistle to Galatians. The variant «οις ουδε» is not a conflation of «οις» and «ουδε», since it is the primary reading from which the two other variants originated. Nevertheless, taking into consideration probable scribal and patristic grammatical impovements or doctrinal alterations, the history of the transmission seems to exhibit the transmissional phenomenon of difflation. The variant «μου τον» is not a conflation of «μου» and «τον». In the tentative conclusion there have been indicated several factors to be considered on which the variant «υμων τον» can be supposed to be a conflation of the primary reading «υμων» and the variant «τον». Key words: conflation, Epistle to Galatians, New Testament, Corpus Paulinum manuscript.

Screener tests need validation too: Weighing an argument for test use against practical concerns

In this study, we define the term screener test, elaborate key considerations in test design, and describe how to incorporate the concepts of practicality and argument-based validation to drive an evaluation of screener tests for language assessment. A screener test is defined as a brief assessment designed to identify an examinee as a member of a particular population or subpopulation. Consequently, its focus of measurement is to provide information that distinguishes the targeted subpopulations. Although the trade-off between measurement quality and practicality is an important consideration for any assessment (Bachman & Palmer, 1996), practicality is a particularly critical feature of low-stakes screener tests in language assessment given their use in routing examinees to other assessments, rather than serving as the basis for higher-stakes decision making. In order to demonstrate how an evaluation may be applied to a screener test, we describe the development and evaluation of a proposed screener test for the TOEFL Primary Reading test. The claims articulated through the development process and evidence collected throughout development and pilot testing enable a wide-ranging, comparative evaluation of five- and 10-item TOEFL Primary Reading screener tests that systematically incorporate the concepts of measurement quality, impact, and practicality.