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Roz Hirch won the 2020 Departmental Research Grant Award Winner for her project “What are Students Thinking?: Development of a Diagnostic English Grammar Test for Use in an ESL Classroom”

At a time when everyone seems to be developing speaking and writing tests, what place is there for a grammar test? While considerable attention in recent years has been given to assessing productive skills, discrete-point tests still have a place, particularly in the classroom. This study focuses on developing a diagnostic grammar test for use in a classroom utilizing a multi-tier design. The goal is to create a tool that will help ESL teachers and students better identify students’ problem areas as well as the underlying reasons why learners have problems. The task design for this study could have implications for classroom instruction as well as understanding second language learners’ development.