ALTHOUGH MOST EDUCATORS AGREE THAT EXAMINATIONS PERFORM AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION IN APPRAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, SOME CLAIM THAT MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS DEGENERATE INTO A GAME OF "BEAT THE MONKEY," I.E., ANSWERING MORE THAN 25 PERCENT OF THE ITEMS CORRECTLY, THE RATING EVEN A MONKEY COULD BE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE. SAMPLE STUDIES REVEAL THAT THE…

The aim of the research in question was to investigate the efficiency of various classes of distractors used in multiple-choice vocabulary question testing. Much of the quality of multiple-choice questions relies on the extent to which incorrect choices tempt the less proficient student. The study selected 8 classes of distractors and attempted to…

Discusses the "fill-in" test, explains how to construct it, and gives statistical evidence for its effectiveness in testing English as a foreign language reading comprehension. In addition, a comparison is made between this test and the more conventional multiple-choice and cloze tests, citing the advantages and disadvantages of each.…

On multiple-choice and translation tests, 87 Swedish-speaking learners of English avoided neither phrasal nor figurative verbs, regardless of whether the verbs were similar to, or different from their Swedish translation equivalence. (Author)

Describes the application of the Instruction Parsed Corpus as data in the Word Class Drills version 1.0 (WCD v1.0), a simple CALL program teaching word classes or grammatical parts of speech. The WCD v1.0 provides two modes of language learning activities, "viz.", the learning mode and the testing mode. (three references) (Author/CK)

This study investigated whether second language (L2) proficiency affects pragmatic comprehension, namely the ability to comprehend implied meaning in spoken dialogues, in terms of accuracy and speed of comprehension. Participants included 46 native English speakers at a U.S. university and 160 Japanese students of English in a college in Japan who…

The testing of grammar is one of the mainstays of language testing, since it can be argued that a basic knowledge of grammar underlies the ability to use language to express meaning. The most common way of testing grammatical knowledge is the multiple-choice test, and the most common multiple-choice item is one in which the student selects a word…

Approaches to measuring listening comprehension that can be used in the classroom by teachers of English as a second language are presented. General abilities needed to comprehend spoken language, and stages that a second language learner may go through in developing proficiency in speech comprehension, are outlined. Techniques for measuring…

Investigated the test-taking processes of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) testees taking a multiple choice listening-comprehension test, evaluating the effectiveness of immediate retrospection for accessing such processes. Linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge was activated in a parallel manner for all subjects with input of various…

This article discusses practical considerations in developing tests of listening comprehension in second language learning with a particular emphasis on the choice of listening passages and assessment tasks. The listening construct is defined as the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli. Questions should be…

Describes the development of the Secondary Level English Proficiency (SLEP) Test specifications and the performance of each item type during administration of the test in other countries. Innovative formats such as multiple-choice cloze and multiple-choice dictation are discussed and described. In addition, the findings of a validity study…

Uses item analysis techniques to compare two multiple-choice test formats for assessing second language students' competence in English structure in terms of mean scores, item difficulty, and item discrimination. Findings reveal that difficulty and discrimination aspects are item-specific rather than format-dependent and items with moderate…

Explores the effects of speech modification, prior knowledge, and listening proficiency on listening comprehension. Results show significant interactions between speech modification and listening proficiency and between prior knowledge and test type. The authors discuss the implications for teaching and testing of listening comprehension,…

A study analyzed the accuracy of Spanish second-language production across three tasks (narrative, multiple-choice cloze test, fill-in cloze test) on three discourse-determined grammatical items (subject pronouns, articles, past tense aspect) among 74 intermediate and advanced college-level learners. Results revealed different rates of accuracy…

Compared the English and French reading comprehension and inferencing skills of U.S. college students enrolled in an introductory French literature course. Participants each read two different texts--one in English and the other in French--by the same 18th century author, recalled them in writing, and did a multiple choice task on selected…