Internal consistency and latent factors in the variability of syntactic competence in elementary school students

Costa, Mariana de Oliveira; Carvalho, Carolina Alves de Ferreira; Hackerott, Maria Mercedes Saraiva; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

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Brasil

Audiology - Communication Research

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Original Article • Audiol., Commun. Res. 24 • 2019 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6431-2018-1986 copy

Internal consistency and latent factors in the variability of syntactic competence in elementary school students

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Present a study on the internal consistency and latent factors that promote response variability in an assessment task of syntactic competence applied to Elementary School students.

Methods

An oral sentence complementation task containing 30 main adverbial subordinate clauses was prepared. Participants were 113 students with typical development (55.7% girls), aged 9 years to 11 years and 1 month (M=9.5; SD=0.6), regularly enrolled in the 4^th (59.3%) and 5^th (40.7%) grades of a public Elementary School. The schoolchildren were evaluated with respect to auditory discrimination and processing (simplified assessment), phonological short-term and working memory, expressive vocabulary, and oral sentence complementation. Data were analyzed using the Fleiss’ Kappa (α=0.6) and Cronbach's Alpha (α=0.4) coefficients. Phi coefficient (α=0.7) factor analysis with the principal components method was also performed.

Results

Inter-rater concordance between the three judges was α=0.61<x>1 for six clauses. Concordance between the two speech-language pathologists was perfect for two clauses and k=0.69<x>0.89 for 23 clauses. In the internal consistency analysis, the condition and purpose subordinate clause categories showed α=0.43 and α=0.47, respectively. Of the 13 latent factors identified, only one (12%) promoted total response variance.

Conclusion

Inter-rater concordance between the speech-language pathologists was significant, task items were not correlated within the same grammatical category, and the use of the subjunctive mood in the complementation response to the main clause seems to be a latent factor promoting the response variability of students.

Keywords:
Language; Linguistics; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Validation studies; Statistical analysis

CATEGORIES	CONJUNCTIONS
Reason	Because	That	Given that	Since	As
Purpose (consequence)	So that	Such that	Lest	In order that	That
Condition	If	Unless	Provided (that)	As long as	Whether
Purpose (result)	Such that	So that	In order to	For	--
Concession	(Al)though	Despite	Even though	While	In spite of
Proportion	As	To the extent	The … the (correlative)	As … so	--
Time	When	While	Before	After	As soon as

Clause	Judge 1 × Judge 2			Judge 1 × Judge 3			Judge 2 × Judge 3			All judges
Clause	Kappa	SD	% con	Kappa	SD	% con	Kappa	SD	% con	Kappa	SD	% conc
1	0.18	0.141	88.5	1	0.00	100	0.18	0.140	88.5	0.49	0.054	88.5
2	0.79	0.06	90.1	0.77	0.062	89.2	0.80	0.059	90.2	0.79	0.055	84.8
3	0.18	0.054	55.7	0.13	0.057	53.1	0.64	0.109	92	0.16	0.055	50.4
4	0.68	0.077	87.6	0.69	0.073	86.7	0.71	0.073	88.5	0.69	0.054	81.4
5	0.87	0.071	97.3	0.73	0.090	92.9	0.77	0.084	93.8	0.78	0.05	92
6	0.84	0.065	94.7	0.86	0.060	95.6	0.92	0.046	97.4	0.87	0.054	93.8
7	0.26	0.089	71.6	0.47	0.082	74.3	0.30	0.07	67.3	0.32	0.054	56.6
8	0.65	0.163	96.4	0.38	0.143	90.2	0.53	0.134	92	0.50	0.054	89.4
9	0.72	0.064	85.8	0.58	0.070	78.8	0.62	0.075	82.3	0.64	0.0543	73.5
10	0.15	0.093	83.2	0.83	0.069	94.7	0.15	0.093	83.2	0.43	0.054	80.5
11	0.22	0.06	56.6	0.72	0.640	85.8	0.33	0.072	67.3	0.38	0.0542	54.9
12	0.23	0.061	63.7	0.69	0.066	85	0.29	0.085	75.3	0.40	0.054	62.8
13	0.22	0.049	53.1	0.57	0.071	77.8	0.34	0.073	68.1	0.32	0.054	49.6
14	0.00	0.021	30.1	0.84	0.056	92.9	0.03	0.015	35.4	0.04	0.055	28.3
15	0.57	0.077	80.5	0.89	0.044	94.7	0.68	0.072	85.9	0.71	0.055	80.5
16	0.80	0.063	92	0.81	0.061	92.1	0.78	0.065	91.2	0.80	0.054	87.6
17	0.11	0.102	87.6	0.79	.0.90	95.5	0.14	0.126	90.3	0.42	0.0543	86.7
18	0.14	0.048	52.2	0.83	0.085	96.4	0.18	0.048	54	0.17	0.0544	51.3
19	0.34	0.078	73.4	0.84	0.079	96.4	0.44	0.08	77	0.46	0.054	73.5
20	0.53	0.068	75.2	0.69	0.064	84.1	0.78	0.06	89.4	0.65	0.054	74.3
21	0.91	0.041	95.6	1	0.000	100	0.91	0.041	95.6	0.94	0.0542	95.6
22	0.57	0.072	79.7	0.89	0.050	95.6	0.63	0.07	82.3	0.68	0.0542	78.8
23	0.47	0.068	72.5	0.77	0.058	88.4	0.45	0.08	73.4	0.55	0.0542	67.3
24	0.35	0.069	69	0.73	0.063	86.7	0.51	0.081	80.5	0.52	0.054	68.1
25	0.75	0.064	88.5	0.77	0.062	89.4	0.94	0.032	97.4	0.82	0.0543	87.6
26	0.24	0.089	78.7	0.66	0.083	87.6	0.21	0.097	80.5	0.38	0.0542	73.5
27	0.33	0.125	87.6	0.82	0.071	94.6	0.26	0.108	84	0.50	0.0543	83.2
28	0.10	0.095	86.7	0.85	0.071	96.5	0.10	0.095	86.7	0.43	0.0543	85
29	0.13	0.081	80.6	0.83	0.062	93.9	0.10	0.066	76.1	0.39	0.0543	75.2
30	0.16	0.071	70.8	0.78	0.063	90.2	0.20	0.072	71.7	0.38	0.0544	66.4

Adverbial subordinate clause	Cronbach’s α	Omitted clause	Cronbach’s α after clause omission
Reason	0.00	1	0.02
		2	0.00
		3	0.12
		4	-0.15
		5	-0.04
Purpose (consequence)	0.08	6	0.20
		7	-0.11
		8	0.10
		9	-0.02
Condition	0.43	10	0.48
		11	0.20
		12	0.28
		13	0.42
Purpose (result)	0.47	14	0.39
		15	0.34
		16	0.40
		17	0.45
Concession	0.38	18	0.27
		19	0.24
		20	0.31
		21	0.46
Proportion	0.37	22	0.29
		23	0.28
		24	0.21
		25	0.41
Time	0.25	26	0.11
		27	0.09
		28	0.18
		29	0.30
		30	0.35

Clause\Factors	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	F7	F8	F9	F10	F11	F12	F13	Commonality
Clause 1	0.39	-0.17	0.19	-0.20	0.39	0.05	0.10	0.04	0.12	-0.02	0.08	0.02	0.17	0.48
Clause 2	0.29	0.31	-0.27	0.06	-0.15	0.08	-0.60	0.07	0.01	-0.14	-0.05	-0.01	-0.25	0.74
Clause 3	-0.03	0.37	0.06	0.03	-0.46	-0.38	0.28	0.15	0.10	-0.11	-0.14	0.07	0.17	0.68
Clause 4	0.31	-0.07	0.22	-0.48	-0.29	-0.13	0.15	-0.27	-0.36	0.11	-0.06	0.06	-0.12	0.74
Clause 5	0.28	-0.04	-0.27	0.02	0.47	-0.36	-0.21	-0.09	-0.18	-0.18	-0.19	0.02	-0.18	0.70
Clause 6	-0.20	-0.46	0.17	-0.04	0.10	0.16	-0.01	-0.19	0.13	0.20	-0.44	0.01	0.08	0.61
Clause 7	0.33	0.23	0.35	-0.31	-0.28	0.30	-0.12	-0.18	-0.29	-0.09	-0.23	-0.02	-0.21	0.78
Clause 8	0.19	-0.04	-0.26	-0.46	0.04	0.19	0.15	-0.09	-0.06	-0.31	0.14	-0.17	0.36	0.67
Clause 9	0.36	0.01	0.43	0.04	0.06	-0.19	-0.02	0.16	-0.34	0.27	0.14	0.21	-0.02	0.64
Clause 10	0.25	0.21	0.31	0.24	0.29	0.23	-0.12	-0.39	0.16	-0.11	-0.28	-0.25	0.15	0.77
Clause 11	0.59	-0.20	-0.04	0.04	-0.25	0.10	-0.24	0.26	0.14	0.08	-0.24	-0.21	0.15	0.73
Clause 12	0.46	0.17	0.01	0.18	-0.06	0.11	0.18	0.22	0.03	0.00	-0.53	0.29	-0.05	0.75
Clause 13	0.26	0.09	-0.09	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.13	0.69	-0.16	0.11	-0.05	-0.41	0.10	0.79
Clause 14	0.50	0.00	-0.05	0.03	-0.18	0.00	-0.01	-0.23	0.45	0.25	0.10	-0.34	-0.14	0.76
Clause 15	0.51	-0.10	-0.32	-0.30	-0.34	-0.01	0.03	-0.08	0.06	-0.06	-0.07	0.23	0.11	0.66
Clause 16	0.20	0.14	-0.52	-0.47	0.19	-0.24	0.07	-0.05	0.15	0.04	-0.08	0.12	-0.03	0.70
Clause 17	0.45	-0.02	0.19	-0.28	0.21	0.16	0.18	-0.01	0.19	-0.07	0.07	0.01	0.16	0.49
Clause 18	0.42	0.07	-0.29	0.36	-0.07	0.32	0.23	-0.03	0.11	-0.20	0.18	0.08	-0.26	0.71
Clause 19	0.46	-0.36	-0.31	0.06	-0.03	0.04	0.08	-0.08	-0.03	0.28	0.17	-0.05	-0.21	0.62
Clause 20	0.35	0.03	0.13	0.17	-0.05	0.17	0.56	-0.04	0.05	0.04	0.09	-0.02	-0.27	0.61
Clause 21	0.38	-0.31	0.05	0.03	0.03	0.00	-0.35	0.13	0.13	0.41	0.12	0.33	0.18	0.72
Clause 22	0.34	-0.46	0.18	0.09	0.02	0.15	-0.04	0.20	-0.33	-0.29	0.07	-0.18	-0.01	0.66
Clause 23	0.18	-0.39	0.13	0.15	-0.03	-0.45	0.07	0.04	0.18	-0.47	-0.11	0.03	-0.01	0.70
Clause 24	0.29	-0.26	-0.01	0.43	-0.17	-0.24	0.03	-0.33	-0.23	-0.10	0.19	0.03	0.13	0.65
Clause 25	0.40	0.32	0.05	0.32	-0.14	0.09	-0.11	-0.09	0.07	-0.10	0.17	0.28	0.43	0.72
Clause 26	0.26	0.63	0.08	-0.04	0.31	0.09	-0.05	-0.03	-0.15	0.12	0.20	-0.05	0.07	0.66
Clause 27	0.15	0.21	-0.09	0.22	0.17	-0.41	0.29	-0.15	-0.05	0.33	-0.21	-0.17	0.10	0.62
Clause 28	0.55	0.09	0.17	-0.04	0.44	-0.25	-0.03	0.11	0.06	-0.16	0.02	0.12	-0.19	0.69
Clause 29	0.21	0.11	0.30	-0.13	-0.28	-0.49	-0.24	-0.09	0.15	-0.02	0.16	-0.33	-0.02	0.71
Clause 30	0.18	-0.03	-0.46	0.23	0.02	0.01	0.00	-0.21	-0.50	0.10	-0.16	-0.17	0.24	0.71
Variance	3.69	1.91	1.74	1.68	1.62	1.54	1.39	1.30	1.27	1.17	1.11	1.04	1.00	20.44
Variance %	0.12	0.06	0.06	0.06	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.04	0.04	0.04	0.04	0.04	0.03	0.681

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