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le choice (MC) section, and administration procedures. Finally, we present statistical analyses and discussion of the study results.3
LITERATURE REVIEW
Reading Ability
Reading can be defined as the interaction between the reader and the text (Aebersold & Field, 1997). This dynamic relationship portrays the reader as creating meaning of the text in relation to his or her prior knowledge (Anderson, 1999).
Much research has been done on how to assess L2 learners’ reading ability. Weir (1997) introduced two distinctive views of reading for assessment: the unitary and multidivisible views of reading. In the unitary approach, expeditious, quick, purposeful, and efficient reading ability as a whole is evaluated. In the multidivisible approach, on the other hand, “if specific skills, components or strategies could be clearly identified as making an important contribution to the reading process, then it would of course be at least possible, if not necessary, to test these and to use the composite results for reporting on the reading proficiency revealed” (p. 44). Based on this notion, microlinguistic test items are used to measure different reading skills.
A skills approach, which is compatible with the multidivisible view of reading, has been influential in L2 reading assessment, although the presence of separate subskills is still debatable (Alderson, 2000; Weir, 1997). Numerous subskills identified under reading ability may serve as operational definitions of reading ability for a given testing context. For example, Diagnostic Language Testing (DIALANG) and the First Certificate in English (FCE) include four main reading features: (1) identifying main idea(s), (2) understanding detailed information, (3) inferring meaning, and (4) lexical inferencing from context, while the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) includes only the first three features (Alderson, 2000). In addition, the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) test, developed to provide diagnostic information about non-native speaking students at the University of Melbourne, also adopted the four features of the reading construct specified in DIALANG and FCE (Lumley, 1993).
Along with operational definitions, researchers must decide upon the testing method at the test design stage to collect relevant information about test-takers’ reading ability. Alderson (2000) listed a number of test techniques or formats often used in reading assessments, such as cloze tests, multiple-choice techniques, alternative objective techniques (e.g., matching techniques, ordering tasks, dichotomous items), editing tests, alternative integrated approaches (e.g., the C-test, the cloze elide test), short-answer tests (e.g., the free-recall test, the summary test, the gapped summary), and information-transfer techniques. Among the many approaches to testing reading comprehension, the three principal methods have been the cloze procedure, multiple-choice questions, and short answer questions (Weir, 1997). In an attempt to identify the effectiveness of these three different test methods, Wolf (1993) found that test-takers performed better on multiple-choice items than on the other two methods. The following explanations have
3 Procedures used in this paper are based on Dr. James Purpura’s Second Language Assessment course (A&HL 4088).
Retrievable at https://www.tc.columbia.edu/tesolalwebjournal
2
Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL