A study was undertaken to identify the prerequisite relations (or hierarchies among the items) existing in the item responses of a sample of 86 foreign students who took the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) vocabulary and reading comprehension test, Form 3JTF1. The form contains 30 vocabulary items and 30 reading comprehension items.…

In this paper four classes of procedures for measuring the instructional sensitivity of reading comprehension test items are reviewed. True experimental designs are not recommended because some of the most important reading comprehension variables do not lend themselves to experimental manipulation. "Ex post facto" factorial designs are…

An assessment analysis was performed to determine whether sets of items designed to measure three different subskills of reading comprehension of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBSs) did, in fact, distinguish among these subskills. The three major skills objectives were: (1) facts; (2) generalizations; and (3) inferences. Data from…

Describes research done to determine whether there is a statistical relationship between an English as a second language learner's ability to determine a word's morphemes or structural units and his/her ability to comprehend written English text. (SED)

A study of predictors of reading comprehension in English as a second language had as subjects 33 adult students in full-time intensive English classes at the intermediate and advanced levels of reading. Each was tested with an oral and a written language inventory, and each response was recorded as syntagmatic or paradigmatic. Other tests…

This article outlines a plan for developing listening comprehension materials for advanced students of English as a second language, based on formal and informal speech samples of natural discourse. (CFM)

A study of the information gained by students in the process of taking a cloze test in English as a second language was conducted with 34 full-time undergraduate foreign students at a state university. The subjects came from a variety of native language backgrounds. A 35-item cloze test was developed in which every eighth word was deleted,…

Random parallel reading comprehension tests in Japanese and English were administered to a sample of native Japanese students enrolled in intensive English instruction. The students had been placed at three different levels of English language proficiency based on an independent proficiency assessment measure. Evidence for a threshold competency…

This study used the residual gain statistic in reading comprehension research in English as a second language to assess individual differences in improvement accruing from learning and training. The subjects were 34 foreign college students with a variety of native languages. A 35-item cloze test with every eighth word eliminated, but with the…

This study investigates the extent to which beginning to advanced students of English as a second language (ESL) understand antecedent/anaphora relationships in written discourse. The findings are related to previous research on anaphoric reference in first and second language contexts, emphasizing the significance of this factor in measurement of…