1. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS

2. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Reference
Alderson, J.C. (2000) Assessing reading. (pp. 85-115). C.U.P

3. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Research into the assessment of reading.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE DIFFICULTY OF READING
TEST ITEMS
 Language of questions
 Types of Questions
 Testing Skills
 Role of Grammar in Reading Tests
 Role of Vocabulary in Reading Tests
 Use of Dictionaries in Reading Tests
Exercise: Understanding Fact and Opinion
FACTORS AFFECTING THE DIFFICULTY OF READING
TEST TEXTS
 Background knowledge Vs Text Content
 Text length

4. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Research into the assessment of reading.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE DIFFICULTY OF READING
TEST ITEMS
FACTORS AFFECTING THE DIFFICULTY OF READING
TEST TEXTS
 Background knowledge Vs Text Content
 Text length
 Infering

5. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
FACTORS AFFECTING THE
DIFFICULTY OF READING
TEST TEXTS
Text Length

6. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Text Length
Alderson (2000. p.108-109) A problem all reading-test
developers face is how long the texts should be on which
they base their tests.

7. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Text Length
Engineer (1997) “texts longer
than 1.000 words were used, the
abilities that could be measured
changed”.
“The ability to identify the main idea of long texts
might be thought to be qualitatively different from
the ability to identify the man idea in shorter texts ”.
“Testing for academic purposes, is that
this practice reflects more closely the
situation where students have to read
and study long texts ”.

8. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Text Length
“Long texts allow testers to assess syntactic and lexical
knowledge more than discourse processing abilities..
It is also likely to be much easier to measure
reading speed using longer texts than with a
number of short passages with associated
questions” Alderson (p.108-109)

9. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Text Length
SHORT TEXTS LONG TEXTS
 Abilities are qualitatively better  Abilities are qualitatively
measured. different.
 Better for testing academic
purposes
- Syntactic knowledge
- Lexical knowledge
- Background knowledge
 Measure reading speed.

10. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
Text Length
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing
sentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the
term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that
govern the sentence structure of any individual language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax

11. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
SUMMARY
We have explored variables that affect the assessment of reading
in a first and second language.
The influence of both the questioning set and the passages on
which comprehension is assessed.
The implications of difficulty of a reading test towards the
relationship between text and items.
The language of the questions, their wording and the frequency
of the vocabulary used.
The relationship between the question and the required
information in the text are clearly crucial.
Item testing reading comprehension and those testing what
might be called linguistic skills is something to be bore in mind
when designing reading tests.

12. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
SUMMARY
We have explored variables that affect the assessment of reading
in a first and second language.
Whether vocabulary knowledge is felt to be a relevant or a
contaminating variable in reading assessment is an important
consideration.
Text topic clearly has an important effect on comprehension,
and especially in the extent to which it engages background
knowledge.

13. READING AS A STRATEGIC PROCESS
TECHNIQUES FOR TESTING READING
Chapter Seven