Abstract
In construction of Sentence Repetition Test (hereafter, SR), both sentence length and pause between the presentation of the target sentence and its repetition, have been found to play an important role in SR performance. The present study investigated how these two factors influence the task difficulty and the concurrent validity of SR with TOEIC scores. In order to achieve these aims, 79 Japanese high school students participated in this study and undertook the English SR under two conditions-with and without a pause. The SR sentences were varying lengths. The results showed that, while long sentences were more difficult to recall correctly than short ones, the pause made the short sentences more difficult and long sentences easier to repeat. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the performance under the most difficult condition, where the test-takers repeated long sentences without any pause, showed the highest concurrent validity with TOEIC. The implications of the present findings, along with some suggestions for further research, will be discussed to calibrate SR for second language test-takers.
