COMPREHENSIVE LANGUAGE
Assess receptive spoken language with Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk’s time-honored standard!
TACL-4: Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language–Fourth Edition
Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk AGES: 3-0 through 12-11 TESTING TIME: 20 to 30 minutes ADMINISTRATION: Individual
The Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language–Fourth Edition (TACL-4) is the latest revision of this popular, individually administered test. It is a reliable and valid measure of a child’s receptive spoken vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. The test measures children’s ability to understand three language forms: • Vocabulary: The meanings of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and of words that represent basic percepts and concepts. • Grammatical Morphemes: The meaning of function words (e.g., prepositions, pro- nouns, determiners) and inflections (e.g., bound morphemes such as noun number and case, verb number and tense, noun–verb agreement, and derivational suffixes). • Elaborated Phrases and Sentences: The meaning of syntactically based word relations and elaborated phrase and sentence constructions, including the modalities of single and combined constructions (interrogative sentences, negative sentences, active and passive voice, direct and indirect object), embedded sentences, and par- tially and completely conjoined sentences. The TACL-4 was co-normed with and is a companion to the Test of Expressive Language (TEXL; Carrow-Woolfolk & Allen, 2014). While the TEXL measures a child’s expressive language ability, the TACL-4 measures a child’s receptive language abil- ity. Clinicians who have given both TACL-4 and TEXL to the same child can combine these scores to obtain a comprehensive measure of language ability across linguistic features (semantics, morphology, and syntax) as well as overall oral language ability using the reproducible TACL-4/TEXL Summary Form. This form is found in the TACL-4/ TEXL Comprehensive Scoring Supplement. The TACL-4/TEXL Summary Form provides space to record TACL‑4 and TEXL scores, calculate additional composite scores, conduct receptive–expressive discrepancy analyses, and profile these scores. These scores provide comprehensive information on oral language skills comparable to scores derived from the Test of Language Development–Primary: Fourth Edition (TOLD-P:4; Newcomer & Hammill, 2008), Test of Language Development–Intermediate: Fourth Edition (TOLD-I:4; Hammill & Newcomer, 2008), Oral and Written Language Scales– Second Edition (OWLS-II; Carrow-Woolfolk, 2011), Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Fifth Edition (CELF-5; Semel et al., 2013), and Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 2008). FEATURES IN THE FOURTH EDITION • Assessment of oral language skills is enhanced when used in combination with the TEXL and the free, reproducible TACL-4/TEXL Summary Form. • An all-new nationally representative normative sample of 1,142 children in the United States was used. • Characteristics of the normative sample were stratified by age relative to region, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, and other critical variables and are the same as those reported for the preschool and school-age population reported in the Statistical Abstract of the United States 2013 (ProQuest, LLC, 2012). • The age range of the test was extended upward to include ages 10-0 through 12-11. • Age-related entry points, basals, and ceilings ensure that testing time is kept to a mini- mum and children are tested on only the items that are optimal for their ability level. • Floor effects and ceiling effects present in the subtests of the third edition were addressed by the addition of both easy and difficult items. As a result, floor and ceiling effects are minimal in the subtests and nonexistent in the composite, the Receptive Language Index. • Each item on the test was reevaluated using both conventional item analyses to choose good items and differential analyses to find and eliminate potentially biased items. • A major effort has been made to demonstrate conclusively that the fourth edition is both reliable and valid. This effort involved providing more studies with larger
samples than were offered in support of the third edition. Further, the TACL-4 was subjected to diagnostic accuracy analyses, particularly rigorous techniques involv- ing the computation of the sensitivity index, specificity index, and receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROC/AUC). • Copies of “Critical Reviews and Research Findings for TACL: 1965–2013” and “Combining the TACL-4 and TEXL Results to Produce a Comprehensive Measure of Oral Language” are included with the each test kit. • The TACL-4 was co-normed with the Test of Expressive Language (TEXL; Carrow- Woolfolk & Allen, 2014). DESCRIPTION OF THE TACL-4 Each item is composed of a word or sentence and a corresponding picture plate that has three full-color drawings. One of the three pictures for each item illustrates the meaning of the word, morpheme, or syntactic structure being tested. The other two pictures illustrate either two semantic or grammatical contrasts to the stimulus or one contrast and one decoy. The examiner reads the stimulus aloud, and the subject is directed to point to the picture that he or she believes best represents the meaning of the word, phrase, or sentence spoken by the examiner. No oral response is required on the part of the subject. The TACL-4 test items are ordered according to difficulty within each of the three subtests. Entry points and basal and ceiling rules for scoring are provided for each subtest. The Examiner’s Manual includes a comprehensive discussion of the test’s theoretical and research-based foundation, item development, standardization, admin- istration and scoring procedures, norms tables, and guidelines for using and interpret- ing the test’s results. Reliability and validity studies were conducted with individuals with normal language abilities and individuals who had previously been diagnosed with learning disabilities, ADHD, deafness/being hard of hearing, articulation disorder, lan- guage impairment, autism spectrum disorder, or intellectual disorder, as well as those who had been identified as gifted and talented. TACL-4 coefficient alpha ranges between .94 and .96 for the subtests and is .97 for the Receptive Language Index. Average correlations with popular criterion measures of receptive language ability range from .67 to .71. Studies of diagnostic accuracy as it relates to sensitivity (median = .77), specificity (median = .84), classification accuracy (median = .80), and receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (median = .88) are reported. COMPLETE TACL-4 KIT INCLUDES: Examiner’s Manual, Picture Book, 25 Examiner Record Booklets, Critical Reviews and Research Findings for TACL: 1965–2013, and TACL-4/TEXL Comprehensive Scoring Supplement, all in a sturdy storage box. (©2014) #12700 TACL-4 Complete Kit $451.00 #12701 TACL-4 Examiner’s Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 131.00 #12701E TACL-4 Virtual Examiner’s Manual . . . . . . . . . . ........... 122.00 #12702E TACL-4 Virtual Picture Book . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 234.00 #12703 TACL-4 Examiner Record Booklets (25) . . . . . . . . . .......... 72.00 This is a restricted product. Go to www.proedinc.com for details on user qualifications and to complete the User Acceptance Form.
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#12820 TACL-4 & TEXL Combo Kit . . . . . . ........ $761.00
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58 | 2025–2026 ASSESSMENTS
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