Uncovering Philip Morris International’s Fundamental Strategies for Product Placement in Thailand: Spotlighting Industry Penetration to Advance the Endgame

Background: Tobacco companies and their associated businesses know that placement – where one can see and purchase their products – is critical to their success. Placement is one of the four fundamental Ps of marketing along with product, price and promotion. Placement includes identifying retail locations in important places such as in shopping districts, within neighborhoods, near schools, at beaches, and in parks. In Southeast Asia, counteracting tobacco company placement strategies that result in market penetration is essential to advancing the endgame, namely ending tobacco use. However, in Southeast Asia research on the placement of tobacco products has been limited. Objectives: We undertook to analyze how Philip Morris International (PMI) through its subsidiary Philip Morris Asia Inc. (PMAI), from the time the company entered Thailand’s market once it was forced open in 1990, developed its successful product placement strategies and tactics. Methods: We examined over 4,000 PMI and PMAI internal documents using an historical, iterative and thematic approach. We analyzed the most relevant and illuminating documents, particularly those in which PMAI discussed retailer supply, retailer acceptance and retailer cooperation. Results: Even before foreign tobacco brands were legally allowed to be sold in Thailand, PMAI was already doing customer research in Thailand. In 1989, PMAI conducted a study of potential Thai customers in which 24% of respondents’ lack of availability (i.e., product placement) was one of the main reasons for not smoking PMI’s products. Based on these findings, PMAI engaged in intensive internal efforts to address the placement barrier to gain share. PMAI placed considerable emphasis on “stimulating retail trade acceptance” by making payments to retailers who met agreed upon and contracted product sales targets. PMAI’s initial successes incentivizing Thai retailers by essentially buying prime retail space for placement of their brands, to crowd out local and other foreign brands, became the foundation of what evolved into a sophisticated program to make placement highly lucrative for retailers. Conclusion: PMAI viewed aggressive product placement as essential to success as a new entrant in Thailand, and their product placement strategies contributed substantially to capturing a large share of the market. Therefore, endgame strategies must focus on restricting product placement through surveillance of tobacco industry legal, investment and retailer actions and through stricter tobacco retailer licensing requirements and penalties.

Introduction
Tobacco companies and their associated businesses have long realized that placement -where consumers can see and purchase their products -is critical to their business success (Feighery et al., 2003;Lavack and Toth, 2006;Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989b). Place is one of the four fundamental Ps of the marketing mix along with Product, Price and Promotion (Borden, 1964;Twin, 2020). The manipulation of placement by tobacco companies and of the commercial equation (Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, 2006;U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). In Southeast Asia scarcely any research has been conducted on the placement of tobacco products. In particular, placement of tobacco products in Southeast Asia has not been adequately examined from the tobacco industry's perspective.
The place of products contributes to our experiences, thinking, impulses and actions. Features of our context influence our sense of normalcy and ordinariness, our habits in everyday life, our perceptions and beliefs, our understanding and decision-making, our specific behaviors, and our framing of social issues. Because context influences what products we use, it is essential to look at the many dimensions of context. This is particularly true when examining tobacco products (Unger et al., 2003;Zafeiridou et al., 2018).
Beginning in 1991, shortly after Thailand's government opened their market to foreign imports, Philip Morris Thailand became the major supplier of imported cigarettes in Thailand. In 1992, Thailand passed the Tobacco Products Control Act which prohibited advertising in print, radio and television (Tobacco Control Laws, 1992a).
That same year, Thailand passed the Non-smokers Health Protection Act which restricted smoking in some public places, workplaces, and public transport (Tobacco Control Laws, 1992b). Beginning in 1992 and for gradually thereafter through 2018, the government raised the excise tax rate on domestic and imported cigarettes starting at 55% of factory price for domestic and 55% of CIF Price + tariff in 1992 increasing to 63% by 200663% by , and eventually to 78% in 201863% by (SEATCA, 2008World Health Organization, 2019).
Philip Morris International (PMI) and its subsidiary Philip Morris Asia Inc. (PMAI) operating later locally as Philip Morris Thailand (PM Thailand) were, like all foreign tobacco companies, confronted with these restrictions and market price conditions. When PMAI entered Thailand's market in 1991, they did so under conditions where they were highly constrained in their ability to manipulate three of the Ps. Their product -Marlboro brand cigarettes -was already developed. A premium price was already largely pre-determined because they realized that Marlboro could not compete with inexpensive domestic brands, and their products were subject to high excise taxes. Promotion was already greatly restricted because Thailand's Tobacco Products Control Act of 1992.
Between 1991 and 2006, the smoking prevalence among males ages 15 and older decreased from 59% to 42%, and among females from 5% to 2.8% (National Statistical Office, 2019). Yet, even during this period of declining smoking rates, PM Thailand increased its market share from about 0% in 1991 to 22.5% in 2009, and further to 50% in 2019(Euromonitor International, 2020World Health Organization, 2012).
This study examines the role PMAI and PM Thailand's placement strategies played in the context of what was essentially a naturalistic experiment: how, in the face of constraining conditions in the other three Ps, PMAI developed potent placement strategies to enter and penetrate Thailand's market.
We look at tobacco product placement from a merchandising perspective, a tobacco industry perspective, and a regulatory framework perspective. To inform public policy to end the tobacco epidemic, we examine PMAI's placement strategies through analysis of their internal documents (Bero, 2003;Slade, 1989). We also report on Thailand's innovative responses to PMAI's placement strategies and tactics. We discuss some potential regulatory approaches including broadening the concept of placement to include changing contextual features in modern society. Our findings identify opportunities for improving tobacco control measures focused on restricting product placement in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries to advance the tobacco endgame (McDaniel et al., 2016;Van der Eijk, 2015).

Background
Tobacco companies have long sought to make their products easily visible and readily accessible to customers. Placement within retail spaces for the purpose of making products accessible to customers is now understood as only one feature of tobacco product placement. The primary goals of tobacco merchandising are also to advertise products, stimulate purchasing, increase awareness of brands and new products, and create a sense of ordinariness by having tobacco products be sold in the same spaces as other consumer products. Tobacco product placement has two basic dimensions: 1) within a geographic area strategically selecting the locations of specific retail outlets, typically stores and shops, and 2) within a retail outlet, selecting spaces where tobacco products are displayed so that they are visible to customers, and if possible, physically accessible to customers. Placement can also include strategically locating vending machines and contracting mobile sellers such as vendors on bicycles and "cigarette girls" who offer tobacco products to potential customers.
The four Ps of marketing have some overlap, particularly between the place of products and promotion of products. If members of a sociocultural group see a specific tobacco product such as Marlboro cigarettes frequently in retail outlets, the immediate and cumulative effects of such placement can be a form of promotion, raising awareness of the product and normalizing that product's place in society.
The supply-side placement feature of tobacco merchandizing has been carefully managed by transnational tobacco companies through their own definitions and their "gain by association" with affiliated businesses such as convenience store chains (Chapman, 2004). In some countries, tobacco companies have entered into contractual agreements with retailers to secure placement of their products in highly visible locations around sales counters (Pollay, 2007). Placement within retail spaces, particularly in "power walls" directly behind cash registers, is a longstanding tobacco industry tactic (Dewhirst, 2004). In retail settings, when products are placed prominently, consumers are exposed to pro-smoking imagery. Tobacco companies typically pay retailers for prime shelf space and provide them with branded displays (Feighery et al., 2003;Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, 2006). Tobacco companies invest heavily in creating a sense of ubiquity of their products in society to embed them in the public's mind, increasing the reputations of their brands, and introducing new products. In the US in 2018, tobacco companies spent $9.06 billion marketing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2019). This amount translates to about $25 million each day, or more than $1 million every hour. Recent research has highlighted how tobacco companies use covert retail marketing placement tactics through cash incentives, experiential incentives like retailer parties, events, vacations, and targeted marketing and education to position tobacco favorably (Watts et al., 2021).
In some places, government agencies regulate tobacco product placement. Civil society groups also express their views of where tobacco products and images should not be allowed. However, in many places tobacco product placement has not been adequately defined for regulatory purposes (Lavack and Toth, 2006;Moon et al., 2018). For regulatory purposes, the environment can be broadly defined to mean "social, cultural, economic, public health and policy factors", including neighborhoods, worksites, and virtual environments (Unger et al., 2020). Recently, the subtle effects of tobacco placements have been recognized by a research group that has developed indicators for regulatory research (Ribisl et al., 2020;Swan et al., 2020). Their regulatory outlines "the host, agent, vector and environment domain-specific collections of measures." Contextual factors measured include youth social capital, public compliance with laws designating smoke-free spaces, point-of-sale restrictions, and restrictions on internet marketing. Four thematic areas were addressed: policy, communication, community environments, and social norms/acceptability.

Materials and Methods
To investigate PMI's approach to placement of its products in Thailand, we examined PMI's internal documents in the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Philip Morris documents archive (pmdocs. com). Searches were conducted between January and June of 2021. We used an historical, iterative and thematic approach to searching and analyzing documents. We searched seven collections of PMI and PMAI documents using keywords including "Thailand," "placement," "distribution," "position," and "retailer" in the period from 1988 to 2000 when PMAI was introducing their products in Thailand through their subsidiary PM Thailand. Our initial searches yielded over 4,000 documents, 57% mentioning product placement and distribution. We focused our search using the iterative technique of finding a relevant document and then conducting additional searches based on that document's metadata (e.g., corporate locations, keywords, authors, topic area, and Bates and TID reference numbers). We focused on documents relevant to product placement prior to and at the opening of Thailand's tobacco market to foreign cigarettes. We selected and report on the most relevant and illuminating documents, particularly those in which PMAI Research on placement of tobacco products in the retail spaces has been an accelerating area of tobacco control research (Abdel Magid et al., 2020;Anesetti-Rothermel et al., 2020;Glasser and Roberts, 2021;Lawman et al., 2020;Marsh et al., 2020;Marsh et al., 2021;Morrison et al., 2021;Pike et al., 2019;Pollay, 2007;Rodriguez et al., 2014;Shareck et al., 2020;Trapl et al., 2020;Valiente et al., 2020). Between 1999 and 2013, a few studies on tobacco retail placement were published in the international literature (Dewhirst, 2004;Feighery et al., 2003;Halonen et al., 2014;Lavack and Toth, 2006;Pollay, 2007;Rodriguez et al., 2014), then from 2016 increasing to more than a dozen (Abdel Magid et al., 2020;Anesetti-Rothermel et al., 2020;Glasser and Roberts, 2021;Lawman et al., 2020;Marsh et al., 2020;Marsh et al., 2021;Morrison et al., 2021;Pike et al., 2019;Shareck et al., 2020;Trapl et al., 2020;Valiente et al., 2020). Most studies on tobacco retail sales have been conducted in high-income countries, although a few studies have been conducted in Southeast Asia, including in Thailand (Li et al., 2015;Noosorn, 2019, 2020).
Since 2018, researchers have increasingly examined the density and proximity of retail shops to neighborhoods and schools with populations vulnerable to smoking. Some of this increase has been due to the availability of geographical mapping applications that can be used to analyze where tobacco retailers are located within specific populations (Morrison et al., 2021;Rodriguez et al., 2014;Valiente et al., 2020). A review of research findings on tobacco retailer density and proximity found that high densities of tobacco retailers are associated with factors that undermine tobacco control measures, reinforce tobacco use as a norm, and reinforce tobacco availability for youth initiation (Glasser and Roberts, 2021). One's proximity to tobacco retailers has been found to be positively correlated with smoking, and inversely correlated with smokers' attempts to quit smoking (Halonen et al., 2014;Tilson, 2011). Evidence also shows that tobacco retail locations are associated with tobacco-related health problems such as COPD (Kong et al., 2021). Research shows that limiting the number of tobacco retailers in a given area can result in reduced tobacco use (Tilson, 2016).
In communities where information technology is pervasive, the nature of placement has changed from a fixed location to a contextual framework of many dimensions (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2014). In terms of placement, consumers' impressions of products now can be shaped by more than attractive retail displays. For decades, tobacco companies have relied heavily on point-of-sale displays to promote their products (Lavack and Toth, 2006). Companies are increasingly using a "wraparound approach" to create persuasive atmospherics, which provide a ubiquitous reward in the mind of the public (Ebster and Garaus, 2011). This contextual view of placement includes many attractive elements of place. It also involves placelessness, making a tobacco placement impersonal as if tobacco is just a 'generally regarded as safe' commodity accessible with other products as in a chain convenience store (Hefer and Nell, 2015). discussed retailer supply, retailer acceptance and retailer cooperation. Additionally, we examined Thailand's regulatory responses to PMAI's placement strategies.

Results
In the early 1980s, transnational tobacco companies recognized the potential for expansion in Southeast Asia, particularly observing that the "growth in personal incomes, shorter working weeks, and changing patterns of family labor are creating a large unsatisfied demand for leisure and recreation facilities" (Norsworthy, 1983). PMAI internal documents show that in 1980, a decade before Thailand allowed imports, PMAI had already set a goal to "work towards concluding licensee agreements in the high priority markets of Korea and Thailand (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1980). In 1986 in their five year business plan PMI reported that it had gained market share in the Philippines and Hong Kong, and had added Singapore with an emphasis on "expanding in-market visibility through innovative vehicles, such as non-branded "Marlboro Country" signage together with high impact Marlboro POSM [point-of-sale marketing], and merchandising dispensers. (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1986). In 1988, Robert P. Roper, President of PM Kabushiki Kaisha Japan who created the marketing strategy for Asia and went on to become VP of Marketing for PMI, recognized the essential role placement would have to play stating, "In the long run, the battle for market share will be won at retail, making availability and visibility of our products a top priority. Given our formidable competition, we must be more imaginative and innovative in our merchandising programs" (Roper, 1988).
Building on PMI's early successes unlocking Japan's market (Lambert et al., 2004;Webb 1990), the company set out to penetrate Southeast Asian markets with aggressive expansion plans (Webb, 1989). For six decades, the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) had exclusive rights to sell cigarettes in Thailand. Phillip Morris and other US tobacco companies had successfully engaged the US Trade Representative using US Trade Act Section 301 provisions to force open markets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989b). PMI's internal documents show that senior PMI executives felt certain that using the same approach they could achieve the same result in Thailand. In August 1989, William Webb, President and CEO of PMI, made a presentation to PMI's Board about prospects in Asia, and he suggested that despite Thailand's position against accepting foreign tobacco, "…we are making some progress in our efforts to gain access to the domestic market. We anticipate resistance but expect to prevail" (Webb, 1989). In October  (Vateesatokit et al., 2000). Legal importation of cigarette commenced in 1991.
In the late 1980s before Thailand was forced to open its market, PMAI had made some gains in two of the four Ps in Thailand's market. PMI's products were available as contraband and in duty-free outlets (Gatenby, 1988;Webb, 1989). PMAI had also engaged a public relations firm to attempt some promotion efforts through "advertorials" (i.e., public relations materials distributed in media packages) (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989b; Rekart, 1989). Newspaper ads and outdoor billboard advertising PMI's brands that had not been authorized by Thailand's government started to appear all over the country (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989a;Vateesatokit, 2003).
PMAI's internal documents show that even before Thailand lifted its ban, PMAI was already doing consumer research to determine what approach they should take in anticipation of Thailand opening their cigarette market. In 1989, PMAI Marketing Research Department conducted a consumer tracking study in Thailand (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989a. The research revealed that potential customers in Greater Bangkok expressed two main reasons for not smoking their products: 74% of respondents said that imported brands were expensive and 24% said they were difficult to find (i.e., lack of placement) (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1989a). Documents show that based on these findings in PMAI's preparations to gain share, PMAI engaged in intensive internal efforts to address the main barriers of price and placement. PMAI decided to enter Thailand's market as a premium, higher-cost brand to drive support as a superior product (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1990).
In 1990, PMAI generated a detailed internal report on Thailand that included a section "Preparation for Market Opening" (Figure 1) (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1990). PMAI recognized that "With marketing channels restricted or possibly nil, we will focus on merchandising to achieve consumer We do not expect that branding will be permitted, so the initial plan is to offer the units to retailers free of charge for specific display of Marlboro packs." The report went on to emphasize, "Distribution will be critical to gaining visibility and enduring availability of our products." In 1991, PMAI defined a primary research objective focused on increasing placement capacity: "to establish a research infrastructure in Thailand, including appointing research suppliers; and setting up an in-market-sales reporting system, a retailer information database, and a product testing system and procedure" (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1991).
This study outlined the barriers to competing with the TTM. The report emphasized the need for PMAI to boost sales by "completing organization of a distribution network which can support our brands…" (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1990). Given that in Thailand foreign and domestic tobacco companies already faced many marketing restrictions, which were further strengthened through the enactment of Thailand's 1992 Tobacco Product Control Act which included strong restrictions on advertising (Tobacco Control Laws, 1992a), PMAI put substantial emphasis on developing market power through retail distribution as a means to strategically place their products as a way to make consumers aware of their brands while crowding out existing TTM brands. PMAI stated, "… we will focus on merchandising to achieve consumer awareness at retail." "We intend to provide sales training, beginning prior to market opening, and have secured the services of Gene Allen for April 1991" (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1990). Gene Allen worked in PM USA's sales training program, and he had conducted trainings in Japan (Philip Morris USA, 1985).
In August 1991, PMAI was among the first to enter Thailand's cigarette market. Initially, PMAI did not have an office in Thailand, and instead managed its Thailand operations from its Hong Kong office. Documents show that in the critical period of market opening, PMAI concentrated on hiring and training staff, establishing an office in Bangkok. Early in 1991, PMAI had appointed a sales and distribution company to: "put a working distribution infrastructure in place prior to our market entry. The infrastructure consisted of a fleet of vans and scooters, sales and distribution personnel (131 people), branch offices in selected key cities and a comprehensive database of retail outlets in Bangkok, allowing an effective penetration from Day 1 of entry" (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1992a).
This report on New Market Initiatives showed that investment in placement was essential. PMAI recognized and responded to substantial government imposed constraints on marketing ( Figure 2) (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1992a): In the 1992 plan, PMAI poured resources into placement (Figure 3): "During our plan our main focus will be on building Marlboro brand awareness through POS [point-of-sale] and merchandizing materials. Emphasis will be given to trade-driven activities rather than consumer activities…we will focus only on developing programs to gain effective and prominent product displays at retail." (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1992b).
In the first year after entry, PM Thailand's market share remained below 3%. However, they quickly started to outperform rival foreign companies also entering Thailand's market, and by 1994 PM Thailand had gained 53.5% of the market share among foreign tobacco importers including RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williams, British American Tobacco, Rothmans and Japan Tobacco International (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1992b; Philip Morris Asia, 1997).
In 1994, PMI advanced their global marketing strategies with an emphasis in expanding in Asia, wherein Robert P. Roper stated to the leadership of their advertising agency Leo Burnett, "...as part of our responsibility to protect and enhance the equity of Marlboro, we need to become better at ensuring that our promotions and point-of-sale represent more faithful extensions of our Marlboro Country heritage…Need to become better. Also that's where the future is and if you want to grow with us is imperative… Promotions and point-of-sale will grow in importance as we lose traditional marketing vehicles" (Roper, 1994).
PMAI's 1994 three year plan for Thailand focused heavily on expanding their distribution network in Bangkok and "upcountry" i.e., outside of Greater Bangkok (Fig. 4) (Philip Morris Thailand, 1994). Placement represented nearly their entire focus for increasing sales: "Strategy: Distribution expansion -upcountry. Expand upcountry profit centers to 8 strategic locations; Increase sales force (MAU's) to cover more outlets directly and to service sub-distributors; Continue to train subdistributors sales reps." PMI discussed strategies and tactics that responded to circumstances in other countries and under different retail regulations. This indicated that PMI shared documents internationally to stimulate retailer sales practices (ERC Statistics International, 1995). Documents show how time-tested policies of establishing credibility in a new market were used in Thailand (Philip Morris Thailand, 1994). Documents show that in entering and expanding into Thailand, PMAI drew on their successes in other countries, having developed the know-how to use distributors as "target group scouts" that could "monitor trends, identify hot spots, new restaurants," and "react swiftly to new trends and places" ( PMAI Hong Kong and Leiber, 1990). PMI described in an internal document their strategic distribution drive by providing various incentives to retailers. In marketing Marlboro, PM placed considerable emphasis on "stimulating retail trade acceptance" by making payments to retailers who met agreed upon and contracted product sales targets (Philip Morris USA, 1991). These investments in retailer rewards and sales promotions were designed to achieve consumer awareness through retail merchandising (Philip Morris Thailand, 1994; Philip Morris USA, 1994).
PMAI increasingly invested resources into placement as seen in their multi-year strategic plans (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1999; Philip Morris Thailand, 1994). They hired a corporate affairs manager in Bangkok and by 1997 boosted their sales, distribution and finance staff to 24 (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1997). Their product placement and promotion team was nearly three-quarters of the organizational staff. They spent US$ 6.1 million on market research in the Asia region and were beginning to increase sales through their contracted retailer program in Thailand. PMAI's efforts to expand into other Southeast Asian markets built on their successes with placement in Thailand, which became a "playbook." For example, in 1994 PMAI developed a launch plan to enter Vietnam which at the time did not allow imported cigarettes or tobacco advertising (Philip Morris Asia Inc., 1994). Two of the plan's communication foci were to: "develop dedicated sales and distribution network" to "create awareness and impact at retail" and "branding of POSM [point-of-sale materials]

at retail, thematic and branding of POSM, and fixtures inside the premises of institutional outlets."
The product placement strategies PMAI implemented when Thailand's market opened formed the foundation of their future success penetrating and dominating Thailand's market. By 2015, PMI brands had 29% of the market share in Thailand (Euromonitor International, 2016). Their strategic actions, primarily in placement, brought their market share to 50% in 2019, overtaking TTM at 43%, and other transnational tobacco companies combined with the remaining 7% (Euromonitor International, 2020).
Research conducted in Thailand in 2017 showed that PM Thailand was leaning on retail shop owners to connect potential customers to their products (Phetphum et al., 2017). A report issued by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance in 2019 documented PMAI's tactics in Thailand and five other Southeast Asian countries of providing retailer incentives including free cigarettes, cash incentives, free merchandise, shopping vouchers, lucky draws and raffles (Kolandai and Jirathanapiwat, 2019). PMAI's development of many of these incentives grew from their early successes in placement.
In 2005, Thailand was the first country in Asia to ban the retail display of cigarette packs at point-of-sale. Thailand recognized that displays of cigarette packs were a form of advertising, and thus required retailers to place cigarette packs behind non-transparent physical barriers so that customers could not see them. In the first post-ban survey, over 90% of smokers were aware of the ban and supported it, with three-quarters saying that the ban was effective. Subsequent surveys on consumer awareness of point-of-sale displays found that public awareness of the placement of cigarettes was the lowest shortly after the ban was implemented, but increased slightly over time, indicating that distributors and retailers had developed some tactics to circumvent the ban (Li et al., 2015). Regarding strategic location of retailers, research in 2019 and 2020 showed that in one municipality 47% of 121 tobacco retailers were located within 500 meters of schools, a form of retailer product placement, and that many retailers had violated tobacco retailing laws prohibiting self-service sales (i.e., allowing customers to pull out a pack from a slot), sales of single cigarettes, and sales to minors. Based on these findings, a youth-engaged intervention substantially reduced retailer violations Noosorn, 2019, 2020).

Discussion
Our findings show that in Thailand placement was PMIA's most important strategy for building market share with high-priced Marlboro, PMI's most highly sought-after premium brand. PMAI built its approach to Thailand's market using placement strategies it had developed in other countries. There was a distinct progression of steps from anticipatory actions which established PM Thailand's dominance as the company with the largest share of imports into Thailand by 1997. First, PMAI moved to make major investments in personnel, training, distribution and retailer contracting for rapid increases in sales. Second, they consolidated their earlier work by rewarding retailers and business connections to establish a strong, sustainable position to continue its dominance in Thailand's market. In this later period, PM Thailand used its flexibility to introduce different products and become more disruptive of constraints from health regulation and taxation.
Thailand is highly regarded for having established strong tobacco control policies in Southeast Asia (Charoenca et al., 2012). Thailand has received praise for demand-side efforts on taxation, advertising, product labeling, and smoke-free areas. The country has also engaged in some efforts to regulate and control supply-side placement (Lee and Kao, 2013). Efforts to control placement may play an increasingly important role in the future. Research in Thailand is beginning to focus on local-level concerns as provisions of the 2017 Tobacco Product Control Act, which mandates provincial tobacco control committees carry out surveillance and control measures (Tobacco Control Laws, 2017). Some surveillance and intervention measures discussed in the PhenX Toolkit for outcome assessments to inform national centers evaluating product elements like placement can be incorporated in regular local/provincial research surveillance (Ribisl et al., 2020;Swan et al., 2020;Unger et al., 2020).
Re-conceptualizing placement with consideration of how the tobacco industry has used the context to sustain tobacco use provides lessons of importance for regulatory efforts. Even high-income countries like Australia have found that there is inadequate monitoring of retail spaces, and this realization should alert tobacco regulatory bodies to the need for greater attention to the dimensions of place in tobacco control (Baker et al., 2021;Cenko and Pulvirenti, 2015;Chapman and Freeman, 2009).

Regulating product placement
While our examination of PMAI's potent placement strategies provides a basis for regulatory actions, governments will have to contend with the fact that tobacco product placement is often blended into daily life so as to be almost invisible in plain sight, a phenomenon referred to as the 'wallpaper effect' (Collot, 2006). Tobacco product regulation is finding greater public acceptance. A 2015 urban survey in the U.S. showed that more than half of those questioned favored "prohibiting retailers near schools from selling tobacco, keeping tobacco products from customers' view, and prohibiting tobacco companies from paying retailers to display or advertise tobacco products" (Farley et al., 2015).
Placement in retail space is regulated in many countries through restrictions on the number and type of retail outlets and bans on point-of-sale and in-store displays of tobacco products or representations (Center for Public Health Systems Science, 2014; Craigmile et al., 2020). One aspect of limiting tobacco product sales is specifying the areas where sales are prohibited. An example from Canada lists nineteen places where tobacco sales are not permitted by law in Canadian provinces/places (Non-Smokers' Rights Association, 2010). As with restricting secondhand smoke exposure in public areas, it might be more appropriate to be prescriptive, to indicate where cigarettes are available for purchase, with all other commercial areas not allowed to sell cigarettes. For example, a country might restrict sales to government-controlled distribution outlets as the smoking prevalence drops and the demand becomes limited, as proposed in endgame proposals for a country or region.
Tobacco retailer licensing (TRL) is an important and effective regulatory approach to counteracting placement strategies and tactics (Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, 2010). TRLs can specify in which locations within a geographic area, in which spaces within an outlet, and under what conditions tobacco products may be sold. Research in regulating other products has identified principles that make licensing effective (Tilson, 2016).
TRLs are more effective when they include these features: 1. Considered a regulatory measure to protect health 2. Apply to all tobacco retailers 3. Require a separate license for each outlet 4. Require that the license displayed prominently 5. Require a payment of annual fee 6. Establish a licensing fee high enough to cover all costs associated with licensing system, including enforcement and public education.
7. Require that retailers receive no remuneration from tobacco companies 8. Enforce a graduated penalty system 9. Require that a notice of license suspension/ revocation is displayed prominently How restricting product placement advances the tobacco endgame Tobacco product availability, distribution and position in society influences whether tobacco prevalence will rise or fall. PMI has long understood that it must use strategic efforts to address the "global regulatory environment" (Hirschhorn, 2004). This is why tobacco control efforts have long sought to denormalize the tobacco industry by disrupting its efforts to take its place alongside other industries including through placement (Chapman, 2004).
As expected, "All anti-smoking policy measures are contended by the tobacco industry. A big issue is 'tobacco interference' such as tobacco donations, lobbying and pressure to stop restrictions on advertising or places where tobacco can be sold are part of the industry's ongoing arsenal" (Rimmer, 2020). The era of the tobacco endgame -ending all use of tobacco/nicotine products -has begun (McDaniel et al., 2016;Van der Eijk, 2015). The tobacco industry fears the precedent of endgame success in any country, but now faces a movement by several countries to make tobacco use unthinkable for whole populations.

Placement in Australia's endgame
Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (CREATE) has begun a program to support an endgame trajectory. It is a multi-stranded approach that includes retail restrictions such as licensing retailers to sell tobacco products or mandating where shops can be located. The plan's elements are to be rolled out as the smoking prevalence drops across Australia and includes other measures, including high tobacco taxes and prohibitions of smoking in public places (Gartner and CREATE Investigator Team, 2020).
To mark the World No Tobacco Day, May 31, 2021, an open letter from 148 global public health organizations across the world called for governments to phase out commercial cigarette sales (McInerney, 2021). These organizations find that the ongoing suffering and death caused by the tobacco pandemic require similar actions taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments should commit to work towards phasing out sales of tobacco products. Australian organizations that signed the global letter called for stronger action in Australia (Menzies School of Health Research, 2021).

Placement in New Zealand's endgame
In New Zealand, the government has recently proposed a plan to control tobacco use. According to Dr. Ayesha Verrall, Associate Health Minister, the proposals include reducing the access to tobacco through retail outlets as well as creating a minimum price for cigarettes and tobacco (Manch, 2021). Another possible policy includes the "smokefree generation policy" which could ban selling tobacco to those younger than 18 years of age. Other proposed measures include restricting the number of tobacco retailers by population density, licensing all tobacco and vaping retailers, setting a minimum price for tobacco, and reducing nicotine to "low levels" in tobacco products. Multiple methods are being proposed in the New Zealand Action Plan for achieving the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal. 'Tobacco-free generation' policy (TFG) is one of the key aspects of the plan to protect future generations from tobacco harms and to phase out tobacco sales entirely (Ball et al., 2021). TFG does not allow tobacco sale to individuals born after 2003. The emphasis for enforcement is on sales of the product, not purchase or use. TFG is expected to reduce smoking prevalence in all ages in 5-10 years, in combination with other measures in the Action Plan such as taking nicotine out of tobacco, enhanced social marketing campaigns, and retail outlet reduction. When the Action Plan's proposals to introduce retailer licensing, strengthen compliance and enforcement activity, and reduce the number of retail outlets are implemented, retail compliance with TFG will likely be enhanced.
New Zealand's Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan has received praise as an excellent and world-leading plan (Daube and Maddox, 2021). Besides enhancing existing activities, the proposals include reducing the number of sale outlets, regulating tobacco products to make them less attractive and addictive, and gradually phasing out the legal sale of cigarettes by prohibiting sales of smoked tobacco products through the 'smokefree generation' policy.
In a statement accompanying the World No Tobacco Day letter, New Zealand noted that one important factor will be reducing retail availability (i.e., supply and placement in shops by increasing cost of a license or limiting the number of licenses (i.e., limiting availability geographically), banning filters (a major cause of plastic pollution), and phasing out sales through a smokefree generation strategy (McInerney, 2021). Ending smoking will require substantially restricting placement. New Zealand is pushing for this by 2025 or 2030.

Placement in California's endgame
The California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program has established an endgame goal of ending tobacco epidemic in all population groups by 2035 throughout the state (McDaniel et al., 2016;. Among the various endgame strategies such as prohibiting smoking in multi-unit housing, regulation of tobacco product placement is being achieved through TRLs and bans on tobacco sales in pharmacies. In response to the youth e-cigarette epidemic and youth use of flavored tobacco products and menthol cigarettes, some local jurisdictions in California (i.e., towns, cities and counties) have passed ordinances banning the sale of all flavored tobacco/nicotine products (Halstead, 2018;McClurg, 2018). In August 2020, the Governor of California signed legislation (California Legislative Information, 2020) banning the sale of most flavored tobacco products (Hiil, 2019-2020), however the implementation of the law has been suspended because of a tobacco-industry sponsored statewide ballot initiative (Thompson, 2020). The California cities of Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach went further still, being the first in the US to pass ordinances banning the sale of all tobacco products, for which they jointly received the World Health Organization's 2021 "World No Tobacco Day Award" in the Region of the Americas (City of Beverly Hills, 2019; City of Manhattan Beach, 2020; Lou, 2019;World Health Organization, 2021).
Conclusion Tobacco products are the most addictive and deadly consumer products produced, and yet in most countries they are available almost everywhere at all times. This extraordinary availability makes no sense on logical or ethical grounds since research shows that consumption can be reduced by limiting availability and accessibility to tobacco products (Tilson, 2016).
It has been noted that "tobacco regulation has lagged far behind other forms of consumer protection" with smoking likely to increase in the developing world because of "the linkage in the minds of many consumers of smoking manufactured cigarettes with modernization, sophistication, wealth, and success-a connection encouraged…throughout the world." (Brandt, 2007) While tobacco companies' motives for placing their products in retail spaces may appear to be for commercial reasons, the deeper reason is to make tobacco a ubiquitous and convenient part of everyday life. Removing tobacco products from public view and limiting product placement through regulatory measures is possible and should be a focus, thus changing the context of tobacco in society. If we are serious about developing endgame approaches to eliminate the threat from tobacco, we must begin to understand how tobacco companies manipulate their products' place, visibility, distribution, and position within our context.
There is a need for further regulatory controls on tobacco product display, distribution, and positioning in the sociocultural context of countries where the tobacco industry is increasing its marketing to gain market share. PMI's launch of "alternative products" such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products shows the new approaches the industry is taking to win customers' minds and market share. The Conference of the Parties of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has developed guidelines specifying various regulatory measures needed for tobacco control. There is now an understanding that controlling the supply of tobacco will come to play a larger role in the tobacco endgame, the pathway to ending tobacco use worldwide . Countries in Southeast Asia can learn from Thailand's experience and commit to focusing on restricting product placement through ongoing surveillance of tobacco industry legal, investment and retailer actions, and through stricter tobacco retailer licensing requirements and penalties. Ultimately, these countries can end tobacco product placement entirely by banning the sale of all tobacco products.


Supporting Learner Success: Revisiting Strategic Competence Through Developing an Inventory for Computer-Assisted Speaking Assessment

This study investigated English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' strategic competence in the computer-assisted integrated speaking tests (CAIST) through the development and validation of the Strategic Competence Inventory for Computer-assisted Speaking Assessment (SCICASA). Based on our review of the literature on the CAIST, strategic competence, and available instruments for measuring the construct, we defined EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST as learners' use of four metacognitive strategies: Planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating, with each of them consisting of various components. These metacognitive strategies formulated the four factors and scale items of the SCICASA under validation. An exploratory factor analysis of responses from 254 EFL students and the subsequent confirmatory factor analysis of data collected on another sample of 242 students generated 23 items under the four factors. The high validity and reliability of the SCICASA reveal that EFL learners' strategic competence operates in the forms of the four metacognitive strategies in the CAIST. This will lend some new supporting evidence for Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model while providing implications for metacognitive instructions and test development. Concomitantly, the findings show the inventory as a valid instrument for measuring strategic competence in computer-assisted foreign/second language (L2) speaking assessment and relevant research arenas and beyond.

INTRODUCTION
The motivation of this study has to do with one of the authors' teaching experience related to the computer-assisted integrated speaking test (CAIST) in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. The CAIST measures EFL learners' speaking ability associated with their strategic competence. Such ability is highly valued in tertiary education and is considered as one of the central factors affecting academic success as well as for engaging learners for sustainable growth in language proficiency Teng and Zhang, 2020). Furthermore, the test has been evidenced, though not sufficiently, to elicit strategic competence relevant to tertiary domains (Frost et al., 2020). The close relationship among the CAIST, strategic competence and tertiary education has made the test an effective measurement tool in EFL classroom-based learning (Bahari, 2020). However, when performing the CAIST, students often do not achieve what teachers expect them to achieve, as observed in the classroom teaching. This can be regarded as a concrete example that suggests the necessity of researching EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST for helping them achieve academic success (Bachman and Palmer, 2010;Frost et al., 2020).
In actuality, the rapid advance of computer technology and unexpected natural disasters that limit physical contact such as the COVID-19 pandemic have made computer-assisted L2 assessment (CALA) pervasive in L2 learning and teaching at various levels, particularly at the tertiary level (Zhang and Qin, 2018;Qin and Zhang, 2019;Sasere and Makhasane, 2020). As one form of CALA, the CAIST integrates multiple language skills (e.g., reading, listening and speaking) to replicate the authentic language use tasks for evaluating learners' ability to deal with daily language use activities. Such authenticity not only enhances the positive washback effect of the test on classroom-based L2 learning but also improves test fairness, which elucidates the recognition of such a test format as an indicator of the future direction of CALA, and its progressing prominence in highstakes L2 tests (Bahari, 2020;Frost et al., 2020).
Despite this, as pointed out by some scholars (e.g., Huang and Hung, 2018;Frost et al., 2020), insufficient attention has been devoted to the CAIST, especially EFL learners' strategic competence in the test. In respect to the more general context of the CALA, Winkle and Isbell (2017) commented that the primary focus within CALA is on technological elements, and how strategic competence works in CALA is not clear and needs to be redefined. As the core component of language ability, strategic competence is broadly acknowledged as learners' metacognitive strategy use in L2 assessment, which is well-illustrated in Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model (Seong, 2014). According to Bachman (2007), understanding strategic competence is critical to understanding language ability, which is the essence of L2 assessment. Based on this view, research on EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST is essentially internal to comprehending the tests per se, which will further replenish our apprehension of the CALA, L2 speaking assessment and even L2 assessment at large.
However, although the importance of strategic competence has been recognized across disciplinary boundaries, studies on this construct mainly focus on listening, reading, and writing in non-testing contexts (e.g., Zhang, 2016, 2020), and hence how strategic competence operates in authentic speaking tests remains unclear (Huang and Hung, 2018;Frost et al., 2020). In addition to the complex nature of strategic competence (Barkaoui et al., 2013), some researchers (e.g., Hughes and Reed, 2017) attributed this research actuality to the complexness of L2 assessment, while the others (e.g., Luoma, 2004;Tarone, 2005) held that as the most difficult language skill for human beings to master, speaking, particularly L2 speaking, is understandably too complex to be researched. The complexity of strategic competence, L2 assessment, speaking, and L2 speech production jointly justify the scant literature regarding the construct in the CAIST on one hand, and the significance of the research attempts that can provide additional evidence for the literature on the other. Given the increasing predomination of CALA in today's educational system and the relationship between strategic competence and the CAIST stated earlier, such research attempts also make great sense to EFL education.
Nevertheless, the research attempts are challenged by the absence of a valid and reliable instrument. To assess individuals' internal strategic processes, including their strategic competence, inventories or questionnaires are regarded as types of effective instruments (Oxford, 2017). Although some inventories are available for investigating learners' strategic competence, they mostly target non-testing contexts (e.g., Oxford, 1990). To our knowledge, inventories that can be employed to examine strategic competence in the CAIST are not yet available. In fact, inventories that can be used in CALA and the more macro L2 speaking assessment are unavailable either. The unavailability has led to the commonly decontextualized use of the accessible strategic competence inventories in empirical studies despite having been criticized by many scholars (e.g., Oxford, 2017;Takeuchi, 2020). Against this background, a valid and reliable inventory is warranted to address the research gap.
Taken together, the scantiness of the exiting literature on researching EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST, and the absence of an applicable inventory for such a research attempt indicate the research gaps that the current study is set up to bridge. To this end, we embedded our investigation of strategic competence in the development and validation of a desired inventory in line with some researchers' prior work (e.g., Purpura, 1997;Zhang and Goh, 2006;Teng and Zhang, 2016). Considering the relationship between CALA and the CAIST, our inventory focuses on the more global context of CALA for wider applicability, though our investigation was conducted in the CAIST. For this purpose, we developed and validated the Strategic Competence Inventory for Computer-assisted Speaking Assessment (SCICASA). As our study is the first to integrate research on EFL learners' strategic competence in computerassisted L2 speaking assessment with instrument development and validation, the uniqueness will provide some new insights into research designs for empirical studies on L2 speaking assessment. Additionally, the findings are expected to offer a valid and reliable inventory for assessing EFL learners' strategic competence in L2 speaking assessment, additional validity evidence for Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model, and pedagogic implications for metacognitive scaffolding in EFL classrooms.

Computer-Assisted Integrated Speaking Tests
A computer-assisted integrated speaking test (CAIST) is a test format that delivers an integrated speaking test via computer technology. It involves two strands of "young and dynamic" development in L2 assessment: Computerassisted language assessment and integrated speaking tests (Winkle and Isbell, 2017, p. 313).
Computer-assisted language assessment (CALA), also known as computer-assisted language testing (Pathan, 2012), refers to the use of computer technology for facilitating, contextualizing and enhancing the assessment of test takers' language ability. Concomitant with the speedy and extensive propagation of computer use, CALA has become increasingly common since computers were first employed to score test items in L2 assessment in the 1930's. The growth of CALA has expanded the L2 assessment field and triggered influential washback effects in the L2 classrooms (Winkle and Isbell, 2017). Some researchers (e.g., Booth, 2019) have anticipated CALA as an inevitable and irreversible trend in L2 assessment, which indicates the future of this field due to its advantages, including the individualized test process and simplified test administration. On the other hand, the on-going spread of COVID-19 has further facilitated this trend after online learning and online assessment have been acknowledged as an effective means to normalize the delivery of teaching and learning in challenging situations caused by natural disasters (Sasere and Makhasane, 2020). Based on a review of approximately 300 studies spanning 2002-2018 that examined the mainstream assessment tools in computer-assisted language learning, Bahari (2020) pointed out that CALA is moving toward integrated language skills assessment.
Research efforts focusing on integrated language skills assessment began in the 1970's (Cummings, 2014), but few investigated the integrated speaking tests (Frost et al., 2020). Integrated speaking tests are so called because they integrate reading, listening and speaking to duplicate authentic language use, making it possible to measure learners' ability to communicate in English in real-life settings (Huang and Hung, 2018). It is believed that if learners do well on the tests, they have shown their abilities required in real language use situations where multiple language skills are needed (Luoma, 2004). Built upon the working model of language use in an authentic academic context, integrated speaking tests are theoretically considered as an expanded version of Bachman's (1990) Communicative Language Ability Model. As such, they "broaden the scope of strategies called upon (Barkaoui et al., 2013, p. 16), and are immediately close to the metacognitive strategies of preassessment and pre-planning, online planning and monitoring, and post-evaluation (Cohen, 2014). Although the metacognitive strategies assumed to be elicited by integrated speaking tests have not been sufficiently evidenced, as noted earlier, this test format indicates the paramount role of metacognitive strategy use in L2 speech production (Skehan, 2018).
In L2 speech production, monitoring works both covertly and overtly for task completion, and speakers use planning to seek knowledge at hand and monitoring to compensate for, and facilitate, their oral production (Bygate, 2011). In the meanwhile, monitoring operates in conjunction with evaluation (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990;Purpura, 1997), and the speakers have to solve various problems caused by their incomplete L2 knowledge through the use of problem-solving (Kormos, 2011). EFL speakers' metacognitive strategy use in L2 speech production essentially reflects their strategic competence in L2 assessment (Seong, 2014). In other words, the metacognitive strategies that are assumed to be called upon by integrated speaking tests illustrate the equally important part that strategic competence plays in this specific testing context, as it does in L2 assessment (see the subsection of strategic competence). Such importance further warrants a study as the current one.
The delivery of integrated speaking tests by means of CALA is the CAIST, which is typically represented by one of the most influential high-stakes tests: The TOEFL iBt integrated the speaking section (Hughes and Reed, 2017). This explains why existing studies on strategic competence in the CAIST were commonly conducted in the context of the TOEFL iBt (e.g., Barkaoui et al., 2013), which rationalizes the role of this specific test as the research context of our study.

Strategic Competence
In the research field of L2 assessment, strategic competence is conceived as a set of metacognitive strategies that "provide a management function in language use, as well as in other cognitive activities" (Bachman and Palmer, 2010, p. 48), irrespective of the ambiguity plaguing the conceptualization of the construct (Seong, 2014). Such a conception is due to the profound influence of Bachman and Palmer's (1996;2010) language ability models, where strategic competence serves as the core component and works independently or interactively with other test factors such as test tasks to considerably influence test performance (Bachman and Palmer, 2010;Skehan, 2018). To illustrate such a core role, several researchers (e.g., Piggin, 2012;Zhang, 2017) regarded strategic competence within the language ability models as an independent model and termed it Bachman and Palmer's strategic competence model, which operates in three forms of metacognitive strategies: Goal setting, appraising, and planning. Goal setting concerns language users' decision on what they seek to do for a given language use task. Appraising helps leaners assess the feasibility of task completion. Planning is about deciding how to use language knowledge for task completion. As a result, researchers typically describe strategic competence as metacognitive strategy use in empirical studies (Seong, 2014).
However, the insufficiency of empirical evidence for the validity of Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model makes it hard to define what metacognitive strategies are actually used by learners in real L2 assessment (Ellis et al., 2019). Hence, researchers tended to take an exploratory approach to investigating strategic competence in accordance with the literature on L2 assessment, metacognition, and learning strategies rather than simply defining them as goal setting, appraising, and planning. For example, Barkaoui et al. (2013) discovered that the metacognitive strategies used by Chinese EFL learners were: Identifying the purpose of the task, setting goals, evaluating previous performance, and evaluating the content of what is heard/said. By contrast, in Zhang's (2017) study, the metacognitive strategies that she identified were: Assessing the situation, monitoring, self-evaluation and self-testing. Following these researchers, we defined strategic competence as metacognitive strategy use which was investigated in an exploratory approach. Such an approach is simultaneously consistent with the common practice in inventory development (Creswell and Creswell, 2018).
As an interdisciplinary concept, metacognitive strategies are well-illustrated by the extensively applied three-component model which encompasses planning, monitoring, and evaluating in the research domains of metacognition and language learning strategies (Purpura, 1997;Zhang, 2003;Zhang, 2018, 2019). The three components correspond to the constituents of the Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model, but they fail to explain problem-solving, the critical strategy in L2 speech production (Bygate, 2011;Kormos, 2011). Additionally, as Seong (2014) commented, derived from Sternberg's (1988) intelligence theory which refers to planning, monitoring and evaluating individuals' problem solving, Bachman and Palmer's (2010) model is considerably influenced by Canale and Swain (1980), who proposed strategic competence as problem-solving mechanisms. Therefore, in the investigation of strategic competence in L2 speaking assessment, it is imperative that problem-solving, side by side with planning, monitoring and evaluating, should be taken into consideration. In light of such imperativeness and guided by an exploratory approach, we adopted Chamot et al.'s (1999). Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning in formulating the working definitions of the assumed strategic competence elicited by the CAIST.
Comprised of planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating, Chamot et al.'s (1999) model is built upon interdisciplinary studies on metacognitive strategies involving L2 learners with various backgrounds. It is therefore accepted as empirically grounded (Chamot, 2009). According to Chamot et al. (1999), the inclusion of problem-solving as one component of metacognitive strategies is due to its "usefulness and applicability to a broad range of learning tasks" (p. 11). Moreover, Chamot (2005) pointed out that almost all the models that highlight metacognitive strategies in L2 learning include problem-solving as the fundamental component with planning, monitoring and evaluating (e.g., Chamot et al., 1999;Rubin, 2001;Anderson, 2002). The features of the Chamot et al.'s (1999) model obviously established its correspondence to Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model in L2 speaking assessment, but the inclusion of problem-solving makes it better than the latter to theoretically depict the construct in the CAIST. Yet, as Chamot et al.'s model was mainly for non-testing settings, only the components consistent with test contexts are appropriately applicable in the CAIST. In accordance with this, the working definitions and the taxonomies of EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST under investigation are formulated in Table 1.

Measuring Strategic Competence
In empirical studies on strategic competence or metacognitive strategy use, the commonality is that inventories or questionnaires are employed thanks to the properties of the instrument: (a) Easy administration on a large sample size; (b) little intrusiveness; (c) applicability in many statistical analyses; (d) rather high validity and reliability (Craig et al., 2020). In L2 assessment, Purpura's (1997) Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire (MSQ) has been used extensively for eliciting strategic competence (e.g., Phakiti, 2003Phakiti, , 2008. The 40-item questionnaire has four sections: Assessing the situation, monitoring, self-evaluating and self-testing. A 6-Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (always) is used to assess the frequency of the individuals' on-line and off-line metacognitive strategy use in performing reading test tasks. However, the tense and the content of the item questions show that this questionnaire was not designed specifically for L2 assessment. Nevertheless, as this questionnaire was validated by Purpura with structural equation modeling, it has been adapted by several researchers in L2 assessment, including Phakiti (2003), who devised his cognitive and metacognitive questionnaire on EFL reading tests based on the MSQ. Phakiti used fewer items (35 items) and a 5-point Likert scale, which makes his questionnaire more user-friendly. Besides, the past tense and the content in each item have turned the questionnaire into an off-line self-report suitable for the context of reading tests. Later, Phakiti (2008) refined the questionnaire, changing it into an even simpler one with 30 items.
As metacognitive strategies are considered as the subordinate language learning strategies, many questionnaires on this construct are developed in accordance with language learning strategies. One actual instance is Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL), which has been adopted in numerous empirical studies with its high reliability and validity. The SILL is aimed at general learning strategy use, and thus it comprehensively includes six types of strategies: Memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies with 50 items. Each strategy elicited by one item is measured by its frequency reported on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never use it) to 5 (often use it). Though employed widely, for any specific context (e.g., L2 speaking assessment), the SILL is unlikely to be applied directly due to its generalness .
With regard to L2 speaking, questionnaires that examine metacognitive strategy use in this context are severely lacking. Only one such questionnaire is available: The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory in Listening and Speaking Strategies (MAILSS) developed by Zhang and Goh (2006); see also Zhang (2021). The MAILSS includes 40 items, and the strategies for speaking and listening are categorized into usefocused learning strategies, form-focused learning strategies, comprehension strategies, and communication strategies. The first two strategies are for improving individuals' speaking and listening abilities, while the other two are for enhancing one's comprehension and communicative competence in realworld reciprocal interactions. The use of the metacognitive speaking strategies is rated on a 5-point Likert scale from "Never" (1) to "Very Often" (5). Although the MAILSS can be used to measure metacognitive speaking strategies, it is not developed especially for speaking with its focus on EFL learners' development of metacognitive awareness in nontesting conditions. Because of the limitation, the inventory has not been applied broadly in testing situations (Craig et al., 2020).
From the above exposition, it can be seen that the advantages of questionnaires in assessing metacognitive strategy use rationalizes our development of the SCICASA for investigating EFL learner's strategic competence. In addition, the features of the above four questionnaires, including validity, the participants on whom the instruments are used, the language skills investigated via the instruments, and the contexts (testing or non-testing) where they are applied, account for why we considered these instruments as the original sources of the SCICASA.

SCICASA Development
The development of the SCICASA was essentially a process of narrowing down the strategic competence under investigation. As our research focus was on strategic competence and the research context where the inventory is expected to be applied is computer-assisted L2 speaking assessment, in developing the inventory, we regarded reading, listening, and speaking involved in the CAIST as a macro speaking modality that integrates reading and listening as a prior knowledge provider rather than independent language skills in line with the interpretation of the test format by English Testing Service (ETS) (ETS, 2021a), the developer and organizer of the TOEFL iBt. This indicates that the items in the inventory only relate to speaking, and based on this, we synthesized the scale items in the four questionnaires that suggest EFL learners' metacognitive strategy use in L2 speaking assessment.
Consequently, a total of 40 items that are assumed to elicit the metacognitive strategies and hence to indicate EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST were generated, which were classified into planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating, the four dimensions of the inventory(see Table 1). A sample item on planning was "I knew what the task questions required me to do." A sample item on problem-solving was "I drew on my background knowledge to complete the task." Items such as "I knew when I should complete a task more quickly" were used to examine monitoring use and "I evaluated whether my intended plans worked effectively" was one item that investigated the use of evaluating. A 6-point Likert scale was used for each item: 0 (never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3 (often), 4 (usually), and 5 (always). Though the SCICASA was developed in English, each item was operationalised as a written statement in Chinese, the native language of the participants, to reduce possible misunderstandings and enhance the reliability. Five questions on EFL learners' background information such as age and their EFL learning experience were also included in the SCICASA .

SCICASA Validation
The validation of the the SCICSA was parsed into two stages: Initial validation relating to its face validity and content validity, and factorial validation focusing on the construct validity and the reliability of the instrument (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016). It was in the second stage that we administered the probe into strategic competence in the CAIST.

Initial Validation
For face and content validity, four PhD students majoring in applied linguistics were consulted on the layout, wording, redundancy, and logic consistency of the inventory. One item that caused misunderstanding was removed. Two Chinese professors with a background of English linguistics were invited to examine the translation of the inventory from original English to Chinese. They scrutinized the items in regard to redundancy, sequencing, clarity, readability, and comprehensibility. Based on their feedback, potentially confusing instructions, interpretations, and the scale items were revised. Modifications were made in item wording, and one new item was added. The modified inventory was then piloted with 22 students to evaluate the wording, the structure and the clarity of the items for the readability and the understandability of the instrument in its actual users (Byrne, 2016). After piloting, the SCICASA (the first draft version) was subject to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for its construct validity (Kline, 2016).

Participants
The two factor analyses included data from 496 students based in two universities in a Northern city in the People's Republic of China. The students were recruited via convenience sampling on a voluntary basis, with males and females accounting for 37.64% (N = 189) and 63.68% (N = 307), respectively. The age range of the participants was between 18 and 21 years, and on average, they reported 10(M = 10.36, SD = 1.95) years of formal English language learning experience.
Almost all the students were enrolled either in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies or the International Cooperation Programmes in the selected research sites and were in their final academic year before starting their internship or studying abroad related to English, respectively. This English-related background enabled the students to be interested in this study which, they believed, potentially benefited them in their language preparations for their future career or study. Their interest contributed to their cooperation, helping to improve the accuracy of their responses, and hence the validity of the SCICASA was enhanced (Daniel, 2011;Creswell and Creswell, 2018). Additionally, the score range of the students on CET-4, an authoritative test for English language proficiency in China (Zhang, 2017), was from 425 points to 500 points. According to the official scoring interpretation of the test published by the National Education Examinations Authorities (2020), this score range suggests that the students' language proficiency was at an upper-intermediate level as required to take the CAIST (Kyle et al., 2016;Huang and Hung, 2018;Frost et al., 2020).

Instruments
To establish a research context of authentic speaking tests, and in line with "cultural neutrality, religious neutrality, and low controversy-provoking possibility" (Huang and Hung, 2013, p. 250), we selected one TOEFL iBt integrated speaking section composed of four tasks from TOEFL practice online data (TPO2). TOEFL practice online tests are official practice tests that feature real past test questions and aim at allowing learners to experience taking the real TOEFL iBt test (ETS, 2021b). Our brief survey showed that none of them had used these practice tests, as they had not been aware of their availability. This ensures the authenticity of the four tasks adopted in our study.
The four speaking tasks involve topics on campus life and academic lectures. The tasks require learners to read and listen or to listen before speaking in response to different task types such as stating an opinion, and arguing for a feasible solution to a problem, during which various amounts of preparation time are provided. We used the test tasks without any changes for authenticity, validity and reliability (Huang and Hung, 2018). It should be noted that the four speaking tasks come from the old version of TOEFL iBt which underwent reform in late 2019.

Data Collection
The first cohort of student participants (N = 254) was invited to answer the first draft of the SCICASA after they performed the four test tasks in multimedia laboratories. Data collected were used for the EFA, generating the second draft of the SCICASA administered on another different sample of students (N = 242) for CFA after they completed the same tasks. To counterbalance the carryover effect, a 20-minute interval between tasks was provided, and the order effect was minimized through a Latin square design (Corriero, 2017). Completing the SCICASA took each student about 20 min, and ethical issues were appropriately addressed after the study was approved by the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee (Reference Number 020972).

Data Analysis
Three steps were involved in EFA: (a) The examination of the feasibility for EFA with reference to Bartlett's test of sphericity (p < 0.05) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test (>0.7); (b) factor extraction; and (c) evaluating scale items loading on a particular factor (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016). Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation and Promax rotations were adopted for factor extraction and rotation, respectively (Beavers et al., 2013). In our examination of factor loadings we removed the items that had a factor loading below 0.4 or that loaded on more than one factors from the draft SCICASA (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).
The model extracted through the EFA was then crossvalidated in CFA on AMOS 0.24 (Windows version), which started with model specification, model identification, and assumption tests. Model specification was built upon the structure generated from the EFA. Model identification was conducted with reference to the guidelines proposed by Byrne (2016) and Kline (2016), which include: (a) Scaling latent variables (the variance of the first indicator of factors was fixed to a value of 1. 0); (b) deciding on the number of parameters (the number of figures reflected by the input matrix should be not less than the number of freely estimated model parameters); and (c) deciding on the number of indicators of each latent variable (≥ 3). The examination of model fit was based on the fit indices, including Goodness-of-fit (GFI), incremental fit index (IFI), Tucker-Lewis coefficient (TLI), comparative fit index (CFI), and the root-mean-square error approximation (RMSEA). The acceptable cut-off points for GFI, IFI, TLI and CFI were >0.9 and that for RMSEA was <0.8. After factor analyses, the reliability of the inventory was evaluated with reference to the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the thumb-up criterion was over 0.8. In the CFA, the estimation method of ML was employed as in the EFA (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Assumption Tests
Descriptive analysis revealed that there were no missing data. Values of the skewness of the items were between −0.018 and 0.427, and the figures for kurtosis ranged from −0.902 to 0.273, all falling within the acceptable bounds for univariate normality. However, 30 multivariate outliers were discovered and removed, making the final sample size to be 224 participants for a 40-item scale, meeting the thumbs-up rule: The subject-to-variable ratio should be 5:1 (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).
The subsequent regression analysis displayed that values of tolerance of the items were all above the cut-off point of 0.2, and the numbers of their variance inflation factor (VIF) were all < 5, the cut-off boundary. Such results indicated the absence of multicollinearity. Given the rather large number of items in the SCICSA, linearity was examined between the item with the strong negative skewness and the item with the strong positive skewness via a scatterplot, which also disclosed the multivariate normality. To evaluate the factorability of the dataset, we examined the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity and KMO test via initial factor analysis. The results showed that the strength of the relationships between variables was statistically significant: χ2 (df = 780) = 4740.273, p < 0.001, which evidenced that the number of the items (N = 40) of the draft SCICASA was statistically sufficient for an EFA procedure (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Factor Extraction and Rotation
In the initial round of the EFA, with reference to the eigenvalues, the scree plots and the percentage of variance, eight factors were extracted, which explained 62.159 % of the total variance. However, 39 items with their factor loadings above the cut-off value of 0.4 fell on one extracted factor. After factor rotation, numbers from the Pattern Matrix showed that items with factor loadings above 0.4 scattered among the eight factors. Despite this, none of the factors had at least three items (the cutoff criterion), indicating the failure of the factor extraction. Given the parsimony and the meaningfulness of the eightfactor solution in light of the working taxonomies of strategic competence presented in Table 1, an alternative approach to extracting factors was employed in accordance with our review of the relevant literature (Qin, 2003;Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016) and our consultation with an in-house professor of statistics: The number of factors and their name were determined prior to factor extraction. Accordingly, four factors were generated: Planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating.
After the first round of EFA on the four-factor solution, the four factors only explained 49.96 of the total variance, and indices of the model fit (GFI) of this solution [χ 2 (df = 626) = 1105.671, p ≤ 0.001] did not demonstrate improvement compared with the eight-factor solution [χ 2 (df = 488) = 700.17, p ≤ 0.001].
Meanwhile, values in the Pattern Matrix showed that factor loadings of six items were <0.4 on any of the four factors. After the exclusion of these undesired items in the second round of EFA, a dramatic improvement was seen in the model fit: χ 2 (df = 321) = 590, p ≤ 0.001, and the total variance explained by the four factors increased to 54.94%. Following the same procedure, we conducted five rounds of extractions and rotations, which generated a structure composed of 28 items underpinned by the four factors. The proportions of the variance explained by the factors were 39. 23% (planning), 6.66% (monitoring), 6.14% (problem-solving) and 6.14% (evaluating), and the model fit indexes were: χ 2 (df = 272) = 526. 27 (p ≤ 0.001), which suggested a good structure. In addition, the output of the Component Correlation Matrix revealed moderate inter factor correlations (≥0.3 but ≤0.8), indicating the appropriateness of the Promax rotation run on this dataset (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Reliability Evaluation
Reliability analysis after the EFA included evaluating the subscale reliability and the full-scale reliability with reference to Cronbach's alpha coefficient α. Results showed that both were above 0.8, revealing good consistency within each factor and within the SCICASA. The factor loadings of the 28 items and their internal and the overall reliability are reported in Table 2.

Model Specification and Model Identification
After model specification and identification, a zero-order model (Model A) composed of four correlated factors was established. In the model, variance of the first indicator of each of the four factors was fixed to 1 by default on the AMOS. Based on the formula of 1/2 [P (P + 1)] where P refers to the number of the items of the SCICASA after EFA (P = 28), the number of the parameters in the matrix was 406, greater than that of freely estimated model parameters (62). Moreover, each of the four factors had more than three indicators, the boundary criterion: Nine indicators for planning and monitoring, and five indicators for problem-solving and evaluating. Each indicator was constrained to only one factor with error terms associated with each indicator variable uncorrelated (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Assumption Tests
In accordance with the cut-off criteria explained above in EFA, values of the skewness (0.051-0.264) and the kurtosis (−0.897 to −0.397) of the 28 items indicated the approximate normal distribution. The subsequent visual inspection of the histograms with normality curves, box plots, and Q-Q plots further evidenced the data normality (Kline, 2016).
In light of the Chi-square value (56.892, α = 0.001, df = 28), a total of 24 undesired cases were removed, which reduced the sample size to 218, meeting the suggested requirement: The sample size >200 is considered as a large sample size for CFA. The regression analysis revealed that the values of tolerance were above the cut-off value of 0.2, and the values of their VIF fell within the acceptable boundary (≤5), indicating the absence of multicollinearity. Nonetheless, collinearity and homoscedasticity testing showed that there was bivariate non-normality in the variables; hence, the comprehensive multivariate normality was violated (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Examination of Offending Estimates
Examining the offending estimates was to ensure the feasibility and the statistical significance of all the parameters estimated. It was a fundamental step before model fit evaluation, which included the inspection of the correlation between constructs (convergent validity), standardized factor loadings and standard errors. According to Byrne (2016) and Kline (2016), values of correlation coefficients between constructs should be <0.8; values of standardized factor loadings cannot be close to or exceed 1; and the standard errors should be >0. After the first round of CFA, all these parameters were shown as not offending estimates, though the correlation coefficient between monitoring and evaluating was 0.81, slightly >0.8. Such results suggested the appropriateness of model fit evaluation (Kline, 2016).

Model Evaluation
As multivariate normality was violated, multivariate normality was re-investigated during the first round of the CFA. The value of the Mardia's coefficient multivariate kurtosis was found to be 136.091, and its critical ratio or C.R. was 24.286, both greater than the threshold criteria: Normalized multivariate kurtosis should be < 5, and the value of C.R. should be <1.96. Therefore, multivariate non-normality was identified. For nonnormal correction, bootstrapping procedure was run so that the bias-corrected confidence intervals of the parameter estimate, and the corrected general model fit indices were examined for model evaluation (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016). Results of the model fit indices of Model A were: χ 2 (df = 344) = 750.034, p = 0.000. As the value of χ 2 /df was 2.18, larger than the cut-off point (≥ 2), and the p-value was found to be 0.00, less than the thumb-up value of 0.05, the model was not satisfactory. Additionally, values of CFI, GFI, and TLI were all <0.9, the criteria for an acceptable model. Given that these indices were estimated under the condition of multivariate non-normality, bootstrap standard errors of each parameters and bootstrap confidence were inspected for bias corrected parameters. After the bias correction, all these indices were statistically significant: p-values of the bootstrap standard errors were <0.001, while their bootstrap confidence did not fall on the value of zero. Bollen-Stine bootstrap value was also examined for the bias-corrected general model fit which was equal to zero. The outcome of the bootstrapping was consistent with the original model fit examination, suggesting that Model A did not fit the current dataset and therefore modification was needed for a better model fit (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016).

Model Modifications
Model modification was conducted with reference to factor loadings, modification indices and standardized residual weights. As Byrne (2016) and Kline (2016) proposed, an ideal factor loading should be >0.7. Further, the observed variables with standardized residual weight >1.6 for p < 0.05 may indicate areas of strain and should be removed. In line with this, two undesired items were deleted, which improved the model fit and generated Model B. The inspection of the modification indices of Model B led to the inclusion of extra six paths between error terms, which resulted in a better Model C. Final modification involved the deletion of variables with undesired standardized residual weights. After the modification, Model D composed of 23 items was established with desired model fit indices: Although the index of CFI (0.892) was still less than the cutoff value of 0.9, other indices were satisfactory. In addition, the bootstrap estimates proved that the bias-corrected bootstrap standard errors and the intervals of the parameters in the model were all acceptable. In addition, a bias-corrected p-value of Model D was 0.204, much greater than the threshold (0.05), indicating the statistical significance of the model fit. Detailed model indices of the four models generated in CFA are summarized in Table 3, and Figure 1 illustrates the factor loadings of the 23 items and the correlation coefficients of the four factors in Model D.

Validity and Reliability
Model validity and reliability were assessed with reference to the values of the Composite Reliability (CR > 0.7), Average Variance Extracted (AVE > 0.5) and Maximum Shared Variance (MSV ≤  Table 4, the values of CR for the factors were satisfactory; the value of AVE for monitoring was a little less than the cut-off criterion of 0.5; and the values of MSV for monitoring  Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org and evaluation were slightly greater than the values of their AVE. Those numbers indicated that Model D did not meet the requirements on construct validity. Despite this, given the fairly large sample size, and the ideal overall fit indices demonstrated by Table 3, this minor discrepancy between the actual values and the cut-off points was tolerable (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2016). Therefore, Model D was accepted to fit the dataset.

DISCUSSION
The development and validation of the SCICASA was essentially a process in which we probed the EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST. The 4-factor model validated via EFA and CFA (see Figure 1) revealed EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST. To be specific, the first factor, linguistically labeled planning, refers to EFL learners' determination of their objectives and how to achieve the expected goals in test performance. This planning construct is reflected by six items (e.g., I was aware of the need to plan a course of action). The second factor is labeled problem-solving, which is highly related to what the EFL learners did when encountering problems in the test such as making a guess or using a substitute. Five items represent this factor and examples of these items include "I guessed the meaning of the unknown words or expressions by using my knowledge (e.g., words in the context, knowledge of word information and of the topic)." The third construct is monitoring which refers to the EFL learners' examination of what they did in the test for a given plan. An example item is "When I was speaking, I knew when I had spoken in a way that sounded like a native speaker." The fourth factor is evaluating, which displayed the EFL students' response to post-test self-evaluation. The construct is represented by items such as "I evaluated my performance satisfaction as I moved along the task." Detailed constructs and the item scales of the SCICASA that reflect EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST are presented in the Appendix.
In addition, the SCICASA helped us identify that problemsolving, though typically not included in the widely applied three-component model of metacognitive strategies, is one of the fundamental components of EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST. Given that the participants are Chinese EFL learners, such identification is supported by studies such as Sun (2016) and Zhou (2020), who postulated that problem-solving is one of the key strategies that Chinese EFL learners must master in their daily EFL learning activities. Learning experiences of such likely made it natural for the participants to use problemsolving in L2 assessment. Chinese EFL learners' problem-solving strategy use as evidenced in the inventory was also reported in the study by Yin (2013), who discovered that problem-solving worked more effectively in Chinese EFL learners' performance on speaking tasks. In fact, this phenomenon is not unique to Chinese EFL learners. According to Cohen (2018), L2 learners tend to use strategies in line with a specific language skill or modality, which put strategy use in a well-placed position. Additionally, such a relationship coincides with the view held by Oxford (2017), who proposed that the use of L2 learning strategies, including metacognitive strategies, is associated with a specific language skill area.
Furthermore, the validation provides empirical support for some researchers who advocated the inclusion of problem-solving in the metacognition model (e.g., Chamot, 2009). It accordingly proves that Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model should be reconsidered, and the problem-solving strategy is expected to be included. The inclusion will serve as a research effort to respond to the proposal from some scholars in L2 assessment: Metacognitive strategies validated by empirical studies should be included in Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model for its comprehensive validity (e.g., Phakiti, 2016). On the other hand, the validation of planning, monitoring, and evaluating reflected in the SCICASA lends support for Bachman and Palmer's (2010) model. Moreover, the high correlation coefficients of the four constructs validated by the CFA demonstrate the interactions of the four individual metacognitive strategies with one another in the EFL learners' response to L2 speaking assessment. The interactions are consistent with the working mode of the construct advocated by scholars such as Flavell (1979) and Takeuchi (2020): Metacognitive strategies operate either independently or interactively in task performance. Finally, from the perspective of speaking, the inventory adds validating evidence for the L2 speech production models proposed by Kormos (2011) and Bygate (2011), where planning, problemsolving, monitoring, and evaluating work independently and interactively.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
We conducted our investigation into EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST through developing and validating the SCICASA. The high validity and reliability of the inventory reveal that in performing the test, EFL learners used planning, problemsolving, monitoring, and evaluating as assumed. Our pioneering attempt to integrate our study on strategic competence in L2 speaking assessment into instrument development and validation will provide some new insights into research design for researchers in this field. Given the decontextualization of the available metacognitive strategy questionnaires in the field, the presence of the SCICASA may help address, to some degree, this problem in empirical studies. In addition, the availability of the inventory will permit language educators to understand learners' internal strategic response to L2 integrated speaking test tasks. Considering the extensively recognized washback effect of the test format, such an understanding will provide pedagogical implications for EFL teachers' classroom instructions related to metacognitive scaffolding, especially in teaching EFL learners in China, a context where English is not widely used as a common lingua franca. In the Chinese context, research on strategic competence mainly focuses on the teachability of the construct, and little is known on how Chinese EFL learners' strategic competence works in actual learning activities (Wang et al., 2015). Similarly, the new instrument might have a role in helping test developers examine whether test tasks truly elicit assumed strategic behaviors from test-takers as required for meeting the assumptions of test validity and reliability (Bachman and Palmer, 2010). Furthermore, the use of the SCICASA may help redefine strategic competence in CALA for the advancement of such a cutting-edge format in L2 assessment advocated by some researchers (e.g., Park, 2018).
Of note is that, although the context where the SCICASA was custom-designed is the CAIST, the contextualisation does not exclude the employment of the inventory in speaking tests in any forms and the speaking activities in non-testing contexts. The reason has to do with the diverse sources from which the inventory was developed.

LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER STEPS
Due to the convenience sampling, the participants had similar backgrounds, particularly, in their English learning experience and the level of EFL proficiency. Additionally, a total of 496 participants might meet the sample size requirement for EFA and CFA (e.g., Byrne, 2016), but may not reach the thump-up criterion expected by others. As a result, the limitations caused by the participants' homogeneity and the sample size may restrict the generalisability of the research results to other populations (Gurven, 2018). Further, although the SCICASA is expected to be used in the computer-assisted L2 speaking assessment, the scale items primarily focus on strategic competence and hence do not reflect the properties of the computerassisted testing, which may weaken the contextualization of the inventory.
It is therefore necessary for us to recommend that a larger sample size characterized by more heterogeneity be adopted in future research so that the representativeness of EFL learners will be enhanced. In addition, the items pertaining to the characteristics of the computer-assisted assessment context, such as EFL learners' familiarity with the testing equipment that may influence their strategy use, should be included in the inventories of relevance for better contextualisation.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

ETHICS STATEMENT
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by The University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
WZ conceived of the initial idea, fine-tuned by LZ and AW. WZ designed the study, collected, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. LZ and AW revised and proofread the manuscript. LZ finalized and submitted it as the corresponding author. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.