Does the text matter in a multiple-choice test of comprehension? the case for the construct validity of TOEFL's minitalks

Language Testing

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 2-32

  Freedle, Roy ^a   Kostin, Irene ^a  

^a EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0002280989     PISSN: 02655322     EISSN: 14770946     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/026553229901600102     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Abrahamsen, E. and Shelton, K. 1989: Reading comprehension in adolescence with learning disabilities: semantic and syntactic effects. Journal of Learning Disabilities 22, 569-572.
2. Bachman, L. F. 1990: Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3. Bhasin, J.I. 1990: The demands of main idea tasks in reading comprehension tests and the strategic responses of bilingual poor comprehenders. Unpublished Dissertation, Columbia University Teachers College.
4. Blau, E. K. 1990: The effect of syntax, speed, and pauses on listening comprehension. TESOL Quarterly 24, 746-753.
5. Buck, G. 1990: The testing of second language listening comprehension. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Lancaster, Lancaster.
6. Canale, M. and Swain, M. 1980: Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1, 1-47.
7. Carpenter, P. A. and Just, M. A. 1975: Sentence comprehension: a psycholinguistic processing model of verification. Psychological Review 82, 45-73.
8. Carroll, J. B. 1993: Human cognitive abilities: a survey of factor-analytic sutdies. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Chapelle, C., Grabe, W. and Berns, M. 1997: Communicative language proficiency: definition and implications for TOEFL-2000. TOEFL Monograph Series MS-10. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
10. Chaudron, C. and Richards, J. 1986: The effect of discourse markers on the comprehension of lectures. Applied Linguistics 7, 113-127.
11. Chiang, C. S. and Dunkel, P. 1992: The effect of speech modification, prior knowledge, and listening proficiency on EFL lecture learning. TESOL Quarterly 26, 345-374.
12. Cohen, J. and Cohen, P. 1983: Applied multiple regression: correlational analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
13. Drum, P. A., Calfee, R. C. and Cook, L. K. 1981: The effects of surface structure variables on performance in reading comprehension tests. Reading Research Quarterly 16, 486-514.
14. Farr, R., Pritchard, R. and Smitten, B. 1990: A description of what happens when an examinee takes a muiltiple-choice reading-comprehension test. Journal of Educational Measurement 27, 209-226.
15. Freedle, R. and Fellbaum, C. 1987: An exploratory study of the relative difficulty of TOEFL's listening cpmprehension items. In Freedle, R. and Duran, R., editors. Cognitive and linguistic analyses of test performance. Norwood, NJ: Albex, 162-192.
16. Freedle, R., Fine, J. and Fellbaum, C. 1981: Predictors of good and bad essays. Paper presented at the annual Georgetown University Roundtable on languages and linguistics, Washington DC.
17. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1991: The prediction of SAT reading comprehension item difficulty for expository prose passages. ETS Research Report RR-91-29. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
18. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1992: The prediction of GRE reading comprehension item difficulty for expository prose passages for each of three item types: main ideas, inferences, and explicit statements. ETS Research Report RR-91-59. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
19. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1993: the prediction of TOEFL reading item difficulty: implications for construct validity. Language Testing 10, 133-170.
20. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1994: Can multiple-choice reading tests be construct-valid? Psychological Science 5, 107-110.
21. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1995: The prediction of SAT reading comprehension item difficulty for two item types: inference and explicit statements. Unpublished report. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
22. Freedle, R. and Kostin, I. 1996: The prediction of TOEFL listening comprehension item difficulty for minitalk passages: implications for construct validity. TOEFL Research Report No. 56; also available as RR-96-29. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
23. Graves, M. 1986: Vocabulary learning and instruction. In Rothkopf, E., editor, Review of research in education, Vol. 13. Washington DC: Amercian Educational Research Association.
24. Grimes, J. 1975: The thread of discourse. The Hague: Mouton.
25. Hale, G., Rock, D. and Jirele, T. 1989: Confirmatory factor analysis of the Test of English as a Foreign Language. TOEFL Research Reports, Report 32. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
26. Hare, V., Rabinowitz, M. and Schieble, K. 1989: Text effects on main idea comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly 24, 72-88.
27. Hymes, D. 1972: Towards communicative competence. Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania University Press.
28. Just, M. and Carpenter, P. 1987: The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
29. Kieras, D. E. 1985: Thematic processes in the comprehension of technical prose. In Britton, B. and Black, J., editors, Understanding expository text. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 89-107.
30. Kintsch, W. and Kozminsky, E. 1977: Summarizing stories after reading and listening. Journal of Educational Psychology 69, 491-499.
31. McNemar, Q. 1955: Psychological statistics, New York: Wiley.
32. Meyer, B. 1985: Prose analysis: purposes, procedures, and problems. In Britton, B. and Black, J., editors, Understanding expository text. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 11-64.
33. Meyer, B. and Freedle, R. 1984: The effects of different discourse types on recall. American Educational Research Journal 21, 121-143.
34. Newsome, R. S. and Gaite, J. H. 1971: Prose learning: Effects of pretesting and reduction of passage length. Psychology Reports 28, 128-129.
35. Nie, N., Hull, C., Jenkins, J., Steinbrenner, K. and Bent, D. 1975: Statistical packages for the social sciences (2nd edn). New York: McGraw-Hill.
36. Paivio, A. 1986: Mental representations. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
37. Parker, K. and Chaudron, C. 1987: The effects of linguistic simplification and elaborative modifications on L2 comprehension. University of Hawaii Working Papers in EST. 6, 107-133. Cited in Chiang & Dunkel, 1992.
38. Rost, M. 1990: Listening in language learning. London: Longman.
39. Sticht, T. and James, J. H. 1984: Listening and reading. In Pearson, P. D., Barr, R., Kamil, M. and Mosenthal, P., editors, Handbook of reading research. New York and London: Longman, 293-317.