Feature extraction of the “Test of English for Early Childhood Educators” using data mining

Abstract

The “Youho Eigo Kentei,” that is, the “Test of English for Early Childhood Educators” is a test designed to develop and evaluate practical English skills that can respond to the internationalization and globalization of early childhood education and childcare settings. In this study, the test is examined in terms of metrical linguistics. In short, frequency characteristics of character- and word-appearance are investigated using a program written in C++. These characteristics are approximated by an exponential function. Furthermore, the percentage of Japanese junior high school required vocabulary and American basic vocabulary is calculated to obtain the difficulty-level of each material.