Providing information to test takers and test score users about the abilities of test takers at different score levels has been a persistent problem in educational and psychological measurement (Carroll, 1993). Since the 1990s Educational Testing Service has been investigating solutions to this problem through the development of proficiency…

In this study it was hypothesized that field dependence or independence would introduce systematic variance into Iranian EFL learners' overall and task-specific performance on task-based reading comprehension tests. One thousand, seven hundred, forty-three freshman, sophomore, junior and senior students, all majoring in English at various Iranian…

This study examines whether readers of German can identify correctly the coreferents of anaphoric expressions in a German text and whether this ability is related to their overall comprehension of the text and their baseline German language ability. Findings reveal a positive relationship between the ability to resolve anaphoric references and…

An administrator's manual and two reading comprehension tests in Spanish and English for use in elementary grades are presented here. The Spanish reading comprehension test was developed, standardized, and normed in Mexico; the English reading comprehension test was translated from the Spanish test. The tests were designed to be used in the…

Reports on an analysis of two administrations of two reading tests--the first time without the reading passages and the second time with the passages--in order to determine the extent to which questions can be answered without reading the texts on which they are based. (SED)

Suggests using an immediate recall protocol, in which students read a passage as often as they like, surrender the text and then write down everything they can remember, as a way to circumvent the pitfalls of traditional test design and focus on communication between test and reader. (EKN)

The question of whether French-as-a-second-language reading can be facilitated by teaching some organizational patterns of discourse was investigated. It was concluded that strategic training is highly complex and difficult and that cumulative evidence is required to assess its usefulness in improving reading recall. (Contains 41 references.) (LB)

Test method facet has been considered as an important factor affecting the testee's performance on a test. That is, a test used to assess a particular ability would yield different results when different test methods are used to gauge the same trait. The language of presentation is an aspect of test method conceived of as affecting the performance…

Describes a study of three high/intermediate English as a second language students whose reading comprehension abilities were tested both by verbal interaction between teacher and student and by a multiple-choice fill-in-the-blanks test. Results show that there is a difference between what the text says and what the student understands. (SED)

Discusses the drawbacks of using the ACTFL-ETS Provisional Proficiency Guidelines in a university foreign language department. Recommends that reading skill should be measured by depth of understanding and perhaps speed rather than by the kind and number of specific elements of language the reader has failed to "understand." (SED)

This Spanish lesson consists of a text concerning a wedding whose preparations were chaotic, followed by exercises for learning vocabulary and testing comprehension. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

Abridged version of Tolstoy's story, "A Shark," is used for reading and listening comprehension tests. The tests stress correct pronunciation, accent, and memorization of phrases. (HK)

Presents results from a case study of a bilingual reader who read both easy and hard texts in her first and second language. Rational cloze and introspection tasks were used to examine quantitative and qualitative differences in comprehension in the two languages. Discusses implications of the test for diagnostic testing. (SED)

Two reading comprehension tests were made up based on two different texts thought to be of equal difficulty. An analysis of the texts and test items was performed after students taking one of the tests scored considerably higher than the other students, and it was determined that one text was in fact more difficult. (CFM)