An Analysis of Four Common Item Types used in Testing EFL Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Psychometric research has shown that different factors can affect the reliability and validity of a test. Reliability can be affected by fluctuations in the subject and in test administration and test characteristics. Invalid application of tests, inappropriate selection of content, sample truncation, and poor criterion selection can pose threats to a test's validity. The research reported in this paper suggests that the readability level of a passage on which reading comprehension questions are based can affect empirical considera tions of item analysis, reliability, and validity when the subject pool is a group of adult English as a Foreign Language students. Of the item types assessed, the true/false and multiple-choice items produc ed better test statistics than did the missing letters and grammar paraphrase items. Guidelines for a more tightly-controlled study are suggested.