A Study On The Effects Of Multiple-Choice Response Strategies On Test-takers’ Reading Test Performance

This study examines the effects of response strategies on test-takers’reading performance.Through reviewing research on selected response formats of L2 reading assessment,process-oriented validation approach and product-based validation approach,this thesis found the negligence of adequate evidences from test-takers’ cognitive processes involved in taking a test to support a test validity claim.Thus,this validity investigation is designed to examine the potential relationship among question types,participants’ response strategies and their test performance.In this way,this study can further evaluate test-takers,application of reading strategies and establish validity of MCQ reading tasks of the CET4.Based on A Framework for Conceptualizing Reading Test Validity(Weir 2005)and the Cognitive Model of Reading Process(Weir&Khalifa 2008),this study tries to answer the following three questions:(I)What response strategies do subjects apply when they work on the MCQ reading tasks of the CET4?(2)What’s the possible relationship among response strategies,question type and item performance9(3)To what extent do the response strategies predict subjects’ test scores?To answer the above questions,both qualitative and quantitative measures are employed in the study.First,students,MCQ reading test performance,indicated by their total scores,was collected by a 3-passage MCQ reading test.Data on response strategies were immediately collected from 150 students of a comprehensive university in a city of Southern China by strategy use checklist followed by interview data from four high and four low proficiency test-takers.With reference to data analysis,the questionnaire data were issued with descriptive analysis,t-test,chi-square test as well as multiple regressions by social science statistical software SPSS 17.0.After the transcription and coding,the interview data were analyzed with key theme methods.The results have shown that(1)participants applied the general approaching strategies or management strategies(GA)more frequently than reading strategies(RS)and question crashing strategies(QC);(2)that there exist certain patterns of relationship among specific question types,response strategies,and reading performance.Namely,there bears correlation between deployed strategies and item difficulty;but no correlation was found between the strategies and the other two parameters.(3)that only management strategies can explain their total scores,accounting for 4.6%,whilst the individual strategies "Read the questions first before reading the text"(GA2)and "Look for key words"(GA5)can predict the test-takers,total score,accounting for 10%and 3.5%,respectively.The data from students’ responding process in the present study have provided substantive evidence for the construct validity of CET4 reading tasks.In addition,the above findings also provide implications for reading instruction and test-taking preparation.Test-takers might perform differently during the model test and real exams in terms of their motivation and processing skills,thus the conclusion of this thesis needs further testifying.Future studies are advised to compare Chinese English majors and non-English majors to investigate how they respond to multiple-choice items.In addition,exploring this issue with case study to profile test-taking process is advocated.