Designing and Preliminary Validation of an Azerbaijani-Turkish Grammar Comprehension Test for 4-6 Years Old Children

Grammar is a key element of language knowledge and a factor in predicting language learning and success. Early diagnosis of grammatical errors in children before entering school is very important. So far, no tool has been designed to evaluate the Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension in Iran. The present study aims to design the Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension test for Iranian children aged 4-6 along and assess its validity.

This is a mixed-method (qualitative-quantitative) study. After searching in various databases and reviewing available articles, 42 grammatical structures of the Azerbaijani language were extracted, of which 8 were removed after preliminary examination by experts. Then, 204 items were formulated for the remaining 34 grammatical structures. To determine the content validity, the test was sent to 11 experts in the field of Azerbaijani language grammar to evaluate the items. According to their opinions, two more suitable items were selected from among four items for each grammatical structure and included in the initial version for the pilot study. The initial test version was conducted on 30 children aged 4-6 years with normal language development.

After calculating the content validity ratio (CVR), two grammatical structures were removed, and 32 structures with 128 items having CVR≥0.59 remained. After calculating the content validity index (CVI), the items with CVI≥0.79 were selected. The initial version had 32 grammatical structures and 64 items. None of the items were removed in the pilot phase, and only 10 items were modified. The CVR and CVI of the test were 0.91 and 0.87, respectively, indicating good content validity.

The Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension test has good content and face validity and can be used to evaluate the grammar comprehension of children with Azerbaijani language aged 4-6 years.