Predicting Item Difficulty in a Reading Test

This study investigates how cognitive and contextual characteristics of multiple-choice reading tasks impact empirical difficulty in a reading test. Results provide evidence of construct validity and are also relevant for teaching practice aiming at the teaching of reading strategies.

In this book, the author investigates a central issue in language testing research: What are the key features that contribute to item difficulty in a reading test? Results of various statistical analyses of the multiple-choice reading items from the Austrian 2009 baseline reading test show a significant correlation between empirical item difficulty and both cognitive processes and metacognitive strategies. The findings thus provide evidence of the construct validity of the baseline reading test on the one hand, but are equally relevant to teaching practice on the other hand. The teaching of reading at lower secondary level in the Austrian context needs to focus more on cognitive processes of different complexity and the active teaching of metacognitive reading strategies.

Autorentext

Klaus Siller is a Senior Lecturer in English as a Foreign Language in the English Department at the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig. His research interests are in all areas of foreign language teacher education and particularly in foreign language testing and assessment.

Inhalt

1 Introduction - 2 Political and Historical Context - 3 Approaches to Language Test Validation - 4 Item Content Analysis - 5 Statistical Analyses - 6 Results - 7 Conclusion