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 AAAL 2012 Annual Conference

 

Relating Test-taking Strategies toea ng es

 Alan Urmston

Hon Kon Pol technic Universit

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DELTA is …

an online English language proficiency assessment system

 which can

diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses track and report on students’ language gains

 

help students to plan their language learning

 

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‘It is common to assert that diagnostic tests arenten e to pro e t e strengt s an wea nesses o

learners, but there is virtually no description,

constructs might be that should be operationalizedin valid diagnostic tests’ (p.28).

(Alderson, 2007)

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Validating the DELTA:

e rea ng test

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Jang (2009) identifies two key issues in the

diagnostic assessment of reading comprehension:‘  e c arac er s cs o rea ng s pro es …

and the usefulness of the resulting diagnostic’ . ,

reiterated by Alderson (2007) who suggests that‘central to diagnosis must be the provision of usablefeedback either to the learners themselves or to the

diagnoser’ (p.30).

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The DELTA reading subskillsDrawing on taxonomies of reading subskills (Munby, 1978; Weir, 1983;

 Alderson & Lukmani, 1989; Jang, 2009), knowledge of the Hong Kong tertiary- 

Identifying specific information

  ,identified eight (8) reading subskills to be tested in the DELTA:

Interpreting a word or phrase as used by the writer

Understanding main ideas and supporting ideas

Understandin information and makin an inference 

Understanding an argument made by the writer

Interpreting an attitude or intention of the writer

 

Identifying text type

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The DELTA readin com onent

consists of 

four testlets (reading text + test items)

increasing difficulty level (e.g. easy, medium, difficult)

items of calibrated difficulty level (Winsteps) reading texts of the type (topic, theme, genre) that

academic and non-academic)

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Component Diagnostic Report: Reading

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‘What a test of reading tests is not simply what itsconstructors say t tests, nor w at a set o u gesconsiders it to test. It must surely and crucially relate

- ’

or she responds to an item’ (p.478).

,

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Test-taker stimulated recalls

Post-test interviews were conducted with 10

students who had taken the DELTA a few da spreviously.

Students were asked to describe the strategies they

had used to answer the questions. In some cases students did live think-aloud while

answering reading questions.

Strategies used were identified and coded using theco ng sc eme ev se y o en an pton 2007 .

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Identifying specific information

S2. Annie (average ability):

I read the question and the options and then I scanned through theparagraph and I found the word 'priests'. I noticed that the firstoption has the same word and so I chose A.

 .

I read the whole passage quickly and so I knew the answer should be A. It’s an easy passage so I understand very well.

S5. Bill (average ability):

I read the whole passage. I understand it easily coz the sentences are

options as I knew they don’t make sense.

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 Common strategies for Identifying specific information

 

T5 Reads the question and then reads the passage/portion to look for clues to the answer,

either before or while considering options.  .

T24 Selects options through elimination of other option(s) as unreasonable based on

 paragraph/overall passage meaning.

R5 Reads the whole passage rapidly.

TW1 Uses the process of elimination (i.e., selecting an option even though it is not

’, .

R4 Reads the whole passage carefully.

TW3 Selects the option because it appears to have a word or phrase from the passage in it –  poss y a ey wor .

R6 Reads a portion of the passage carefully.

T22 Selects o tions throu h vocabular sentence ara ra h or assa e overall meanin

(depending on item type).

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So, for Identifying specific information (and for

…

,and test wiseness strategies to answer the items.

So how do reading strategies translate into

rea ng s s or su s s

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‘Reading strategies are deliberate, goal-directed

attempts to control and modify the reader’s efforts to, ,of text. Reading skills are automatic actions that resultin decodin and com rehension with s eed efficienc

and fluency and usually occur without awareness of thecomponents or control involved’ (p.368).

 Afflerbach et al (2008)

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Just reads from the start and

straight to the end; reading for

',

or pause. If it's something [she]

can't understand then [she'll]

stop once in a while to check

what [she’s] read.

Reads all the questions

first then reads the

relevant part of the text.

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DELTA Reading Text Comparison

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  ea ng erson- em ap

More-proficient Readers

GR 

Less-proficient Readers

 W T

H

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  ea ng erson- em ap

more proficient readers

 what the more

can do

less proficient readers

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  …

information to help them know what

.

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Tentative descriptions of proficiency

Proficient readers (DELTA > 110) can:

Identify specific information in feature articles on lessfamiliar topics

Understand the main and supporting ideas in academicarticles in fields outside of their course of study

Interpret t e attitu e or intention o a writer in ictionaor biographical texts

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The challenge … to predict growth in our

.

200   DELTA 

TRACK

160

180D

E

L

T

113118   120

125120

140

A

M

E

A

80

100S

U

R

E

60

08/2011 08/2012 08/2013 Graduation

DELTA 

Measure Predicted 

Measure Target 

Measure

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References,  .,  ,  . .  ,  . .  . 

and Reading Strategies. The Reading Teacher, (61)5, International Reading Association 

Alderson, J.C. (1990). Testing Reading Comprehension Skills (Part 2): Getting Students to Talk 

‐  .  ,  .

503. 

Alderson, J.C. (2007). The Challenge of  Diagnostic Testing: Do We Know What We Are 

.  ,  .  ,  .  ,  .  ,  .  .  . 

Testing 

Reconsidered . Ottawa:

 University

 of 

 Ottawa

 Press,

 pp.

 21

‐40.

 

Alderson, J.C. & Lukmani, Y. (1989). Cognition and Reading: Cognitive Levels as Embedded in 

.  ,  .   ‐   .

Jang, E.E. (2009). Demystifying a Q ‐Matrix for Making Diagnostic Inferences about L2 Reading 

Skills. Language  Assessment  Quarterly, (6), pp.210‐238. 

, 

. . 

. 

. 

Weir, C.J. (1983 ). Identifying the language  problems of  overseas students in tertiary  education in 

the U.K. Unpublished PhD thesis, Institute of  Education, University of  London. 

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