Achievement Test Development and Validation: A Measure of Reading Comprehension Strategies for Iranian Learners of English (original) (raw)
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The study scrutinized the probable interaction between using cognitive test-taking strategies, reading proficiency, and reading comprehension test performance of Iranian postgraduate students, who studied English as a foreign language. The study also probed the extent to which the participants' test performance was related to the use of certain cognitive test-taking strategies. The participants were 343 MA students, who took an English reading comprehension test and answered a test-taking strategy questionnaire. The gathered data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, factorial, and regression analyses. The results showed that the participants at the high level of reading proficiency used comprehending and retrieval strategies more frequently than did the participants at the intermediate and low levels. The findings reflected that %33 of the variance in the test performance was due to the use of cognitive test-taking strategies. Thus, the observed scores cannot account for the actual language ability of test takers. The findings can help language teachers gain a better understanding of the strategic process of test taking and improve the validity of language tests. In addition, the findings can assist language teachers in interpreting test scores from a different angle to make a sound judgment about the actual ability of language learners and decrease error of measurement. The findings also recommend language teachers to pay systematic attention to the linguistic and strategic aspects of language learning and adopt their teaching approaches to the needs of language learners to improve their reading ability.
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Test-taking Strategies & Performance on Reading Comprehension Tests by Iranian EFL Learners
This study attempted to explore the possible relationship between test-taking strategies and (a) successful performance on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension, (b) EFL learners' level of language proficiency. To accomplish the purpose of this study, 68 students of English translation of both genders were randomly selected and placed in the three Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels, at Alborz Institute for Higher Education, Qazvin, Iran. Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) proved that there was a significant and positive correlation between the scores in reading comprehension test and Oxford Placement Test. While the scores in reading comprehension test did not show any significant correlations with using the majority of test-taking strategies, they had a relatively low and negative but significant correlation with test management strategy. The findings in this study were interpreted as the low knowledge of test-taking strategies in Iranian EFL context and the importance of attending to the cognitive processes effective in taking language tests was emphasized. define test-taking strategies as those cognitive processes the respondents have selected and are conscious of, at least in some degree. Concerns for strategies in performing language tests, are about three aspects of (a) language learners' strategies, (b) test-management strategies, and (c) test-wiseness strategies .
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This study extends traditional or static assessment of reading comprehension in foreign language contexts and applies dynamic assessment (DA) to the development of learners’ reading ability. To homogenize the research population (N= 250), an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered. On the basis of the test results, the population was sorted into three groups of reading-low, reading-mid, and reading-high students. The participants of this study were a sample of 30 participants with the lowest level of reading comprehension proficiency randomly assigned into two groups of control and experimental. This study was conducted in the Nosrat Institute, located in Kermanshah Province in 2012. In order to determine their current zone or level of reading proficiency, a TOEFL reading comprehension pre-test was administered to both groups. Afterwards, DA training was applied to the EG in 9 successive 80-minute sessions on reading comprehension, Unlike EG, static assessment was applied to th...
2014
This study extends traditional or static assessment of reading comprehension in foreign language contexts and applies dynamic assessment (DA) to the development of learners' reading ability. To homogenize the research population (N= 250), an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered. On the basis of the test results, the population was sorted into three groups of reading-low, reading-mid, and reading-high students. The participants of this study were a sample of 30 participants with the lowest level of reading comprehension proficiency randomly assigned into two groups of control and experimental. This study was conducted in the Nosrat Institute, located in Kermanshah Province in 2012. In order to determine their current zone or level of reading proficiency, a TOEFL reading comprehension pre-test was administered to both groups. Afterwards, DA training was applied to the EG in 9 successive 80-minute sessions on reading comprehension, Unlike EG, static assessment was applied t...
Journal of College Reading and Learning, 2007
Comparison of the Efficiency of Reading Comprehension Strategies on Iranian University Students' Comprehension Knowledge of the strategies used by English as a foreign language (EFL) or second language (ESL) readers can help instructors teach these techniques and thereby enhance their students' reading comprehension. The present study compared three categories of reading comprehension strategies (metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective) to determine their effects on 31 EFL students' reading comprehension. A standard reading comprehension test taken from the First Certificate in English (FCE) and a questionnaire were used to collect the data. The results of the analysis using Chi-square tests revealed both positive and negative strategies, showing that metacognitive strategies have positive effects on reading comprehension. Pedagogical implications are also discussed.
Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2012
The present study seeks to investigate the potentiality of the translation task as a testing method for measuring reading comprehension. To achieve this objective, two types of translation tests, open-ended and multiple-choice tests, and two types of reading comprehension tests, multiple-choice reading comprehension and open-ended cloze tests were developed in this study. The reliability of the tests was computed in order to estimate which translation test was more reliable and valid. Correlation coefficients were run in order to investigate whether translation tests worked as reliable and valid measures of reading comprehension, and to examine the relationship between proficiency in reading comprehension and proficiency in translation. The results indicate that the open-ended translation test is more reliable and valid than the multiple-choice one; translation has a high potentiality to work as a reliable and valid tool to assess reading comprehension; and there exists a high posit...
International Journal of Linguistics, 2012
Reading comprehension is greatly highlighted for either taking exam or academic purpose in most English learning settings. In addition, tests are regularly applied to evaluate academic performance. This study investigated whether teaching test-taking strategies to Iranian EFL undergraduates enhances their reading comprehension test performances or not. A total of 66 EFL sophomores studying at Islamic Azad University of Rasht, Iran took part in the study. They were in two detached classes as experimental and control groups. The former received extra teaching in test-taking strategies for multiple-choice reading comprehension test as the treatment within the regular reading classes while the latter did not. Results of the posttest indicated that the treatment was effective and the experimental group outperformed the control group. Besides, their attitudes towards the treatment were studied. The results are discussed and some pedagogical implications are provided.