Relationships between language skills and task effects

The data from a national language assessment in secondary education in The Netherlands were reanalysed to examine the correlational structure of language skills. On the basis of an hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis, it was concluded that skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing can be differentiated, although their interrelationships were rather high. Further, the measurement of language skills was strongly influenced by task effects. Finally, the data suggested that the across-task generalizability of performance-based assessments is much lower than it is for tests with fixed responses.