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Testing reading comprehension in English as a foreign language

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On the theme : Testing reading comprehension in English as a foreign language. 1

Contents. Introduction………………………………………………………………….3. Chapter I. Understanding reading comprehension as a foreign language. 1.1 Receptive skills in the English language……………………………….8 1.2 Reading models and variables………………………………………….18 Chapter II. Testing reading comprehension in all levels. 2.1 Reading tasks in different CEFR levels…………………………………..28 2.2 Assessment criteria in reading activities………………………………….41 Conclusion. …………………………………………………………………….59 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………….61. 2

Introduction The actuality of the theme. Reading is an important skill for English language learners in today’s world; it supports the development of overall proficiency and provides access to crucial information at work and in studying process. With English being the dominant language of the Internet, international business, and academia, beginning and advanced students alike face pressures to develop their second language reading abilities. There are many scholars’ point of views on teaching reading and its affect in learning the second language. As well as teaching, testing reading is also important issue in learning or teaching foreign languages. Under the guidance of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, special attention is paid to the formation of harmoniously developed, highly educated

The aim of the theme is to study thoroughly and t o reveal the to give about receptive skills of the target language and to make conclusions about the reading tasks of CEFR and what are the criteria of this document for reading. The object of the qualification paper is to study, analyze and most importantly investigate the process of testing reading and find reading tasks according to the different levels . The subject of the theme is to study of methods and techniques that are used in assessing reading tasks which are considered to be necessary for the qualification. The tasks of this qualification paper. To achieve the tasks which were put in forward we tried: 1) to collect materials related to the theme; 2 ) to select necessary theoretical literature; 3) to analyze the tasks according t

The practical value of this qualification paper This paper can be used as fundamental information for research works related to methodology. In addition, it includes a lot of materials which can be fruitful for self – studying for learners who are learning the English language. Furthermore , it can be used as a source of materials which provides wide information about the given theme. This research paper serves as an accurate guideline in control works for some subjects. The content and the structure of the qualification paper Introduction, main part, which includes two chapters, where each chapter consists of the two paragraphs, conclusion and bibliography. Introduction gives a brief list of the content of the research. Moreover it states the tasks, the actuality, and novelty, theoretica

who are weak in one process will rely on other processes to compensate for the weaker one. For example, a poor reader who is slow and inaccurate at word identification but knows a lot about the text subject will overcome his or her weakness by relying on his or her knowledge. Thus, the Stanovich model is interactive in the sense that any process, regardless of its position, may communicate with any other process in order to achieve comprehension. “However, the evidence that such compensation does in fact occur is controversial” The second chapter is called “Testing reading comprehension in all levels”. It has two paragraphs; first paragraph describes the nature of reading comprehension make it a challenging one. It is named as reading tasks in different CEFR levels. In this paragraph diffe

Conclusion deals with the theoretical and practical result of the research. Bibliography gives the list of used literature. 7

CHAPTER I. UNDERSTANDING READING COMPREHENSION AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. 1.1. Receptive skills in the English language Receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear. There are generalities about this kind of processing which apply to both reading and listening, but there are also significant differences between reading and listening processes too, and in the ways we can teach these skills in the classroom. When we read a story or a newspaper, listen to the news, or take part in conversation we employ our previous knowledge as we approach the process of comprehension, and we deploy a range of receptive skills; which ones we use will be determined by our reading or listening purpose. Each of us carries in our heads mental representations of ty

allow us to consider different receptive skill styles, and helps us to ensure that we do not ignore genres which students need to be able to handle. The teaching and learning of receptive skills presents a number of particular problems which will need to be addressed. These are to do with language, topic, the tasks students are asked to perform, and the expectations they have of reading and listening. First we would like to stop on language. In the case of written text some researchers 4 look at word and sentence-length, on the premise that texts with longer sentences and longer words will be more difficult to understand than those with shorter ones. Others, however, claim that the critical issue is quite simply the number of unfamiliar words which the text contains. If readers and listene

authentic language. Pre-teaching vocabulary: one way of helping students is to pre- teach vocabulary that is in the reading or listening text. This removes at least some of the barriers to understanding which they are likely to encounter. However, if we want to give students practice in what it is like to tackle authentic reading and listening texts for general understanding then getting past words they do not understand is one of the skills they need to develop. By giving them some or all of those words we deny them that chance. An appropriate compromise is to use some possibly unknown words from a reading or listening text as part of our procedure to create interest and activate the students’ schemata, since the words may suggest topic, genre, or construction - or all three. The students

appear to be testing the students rather than helping them to understand. Although reading and listening are perfectly proper mediums for language and skill testing, nevertheless, if we are trying to encourage students to improve their receptive skills, testing them will not be an appropriate way of accomplishing this. Sometimes texts and the tasks which accompany them are far too easy or far too difficult. In order to resolve these problems we need to use comprehension tasks which promote understanding and we need to match text and task appropriately. One of the receptive skills is reading. Below we would like to show characteristics of teaching reading to the learners. To get maximum benefit from their reading, students need to be involved in both extensive and intensive reading. Whereas

the task, we can lead a feedback session to check that they have completed the task successfully. We may start by having them compare their answers in pairs and then ask for answers from the class in general or from pairs in particular. Students often appreciate giving paired answers like this since, by sharing their knowledge, they are also sharing their responsibility for the answers. When we ask students to give answers we should always ask them to say where in the text they found the information for their answers. This provokes a detailed study of the text which will help them the next time they come to a similar reading passage. It also tells us exactly what comprehension problems they have if and when they get answers wrong. Another receptive skill is listening. There are many ways o

a variety of different voices apart from just their own teacher’s. It gives them an opportunity to ‘meet1 a range of different characters, especially where real people are talking. But even when tapes contain written dialogues or extracts from plays, they offer a wide variety of situations and voices. Taped material is extremely portable and readily available. Tapes are extremely cheap, and machines to play them are relatively inexpensive. For all these reasons most course books include tapes, and many teachers rely on tapes to provide a significant source of language input. Disadvantages can be seen as following: in big classrooms with poor acoustics, the audibility of taped and disk material often gives cause for concern. It is often difficult to ensure that all students in a room can he

to be active in creating student engagement through the way we set up tasks. We need to build up students’ confidence by helping them listen better rather than by testing their listening abilities. Listening can occur at a number of points in a teaching sequence. Sometimes it forms the jumping-off point for the activities which follow. Sometimes it may be the first stage of a ‘listening and acting out’ sequence where students role-play the situation they have heard on the tape. Sometimes live listening may be a prelude to a piece of writing which is the main focus of a lesson. Other lessons, however, have listening training as their central focus. Most listening sequences involve a mixture of language skills - though one, in particular, is often the main focus of the sequence. Frequently s

Stuart: Well, when I saw the time I jumped out of bed, had a quick shower, and ran out of the house. But then, when I got to the car I realized I'd forgotten my keys. Anna: Oh really! Stuart: But the door to my house was shut. Anna: What did you do? Stuart: I ran round to the garden at the back and climbed in through the window. Anna: And? Stuart: Well someone saw me and called the police. Anna: What happened then? Stuart: Well, I told them it was my house and at first they wouldn't believe me. It took a long time! Anna: I can imagine. Stuart: And you see that's why I'm Late! The students check their answers with each other and then, if necessary, listen again to ensure that they have the sequence correct. Music is a powerful stimulus for student engagement precisely becaus

lyrics, especially where the song in question is one which the students are very keen on. However, songs can present a problem, particularly with teenage students, precisely because it is often difficult to know exactly which songs the students like at a particular time and which songs, very popular last week, have suddenly gone out of favour! There are two ways of dealing with this problem: the first is to have students bring their own favourite songs to class. If they do this, however, the teacher may want to have time a day or two to listen to the song and try and understand the lyrics. Some of the songs may deal with issues and language which the teacher is not keen to work with. Another solution is to use older songs, and to ask students whether they think they still have merit - whet

interested in them, will really help some of them to remember some of the expressions, especially when they are combined with catchy music. There are many other ways of using songs lyrics, of course. Teachers can give students lyrics with various words blanked out; the teacher can give students a list of words and ask them to listen to the song to see which of the words are used. The teacher can ask students to put lines in order, or complete half-finished lines. Or the teacher can simply have students listen to a song and say what they think the title might be - or say where they would most like to hear it. Receptive Skills also known as ‘Passive Skills’, are often contrasted with productive skills. 6 When learning a new language learners tend to develop their receptive skills first a

promoting learner autonomy. Coursebooks can provide a basic scaffold and are adapted for an ESL learner, whereas authentic materials provide exposure to real language use. However, authentic materials can demotivate learners if the materials aren’t appropriately graded or applicable to their interests. It’s an important consideration to choose material which isn’t too difficult or easy, and also which relates culturally, so adaptation is an important consideration for teachers. Equally important are effectively staging a reading or listening lesson to maximize output. 1.2. Reading models and variables In the cultural system we live in, we are almost unaware of the fact that we learn to copy behavioural models because of their ingenuity, attractiveness, moral quality or some other positive

which are subject to analysis. In the field of linguistics, there are various meanings of the term 'model', although they have many points in common. These are: paradigmatic or investigative, theoretical or interpreting a theory, hypothetical or representing well-established hypotheses, descriptive, general framework or following the criteria of another science, and macromodel or equivalent to the epistemological system. The concept of reading has changed with time as the nature of education has evolved. Nowadays a typical reader would be someone able to process a written text in silence to obtain, use and analyse information or to entertain themselves. However, few adults at that time were able to read, and, for that matter, recite aloud, and among them, only a small proportion wa

way. However, it is also important to recognize that “the notion that there can be a single model for reading across tasks, genre, and purpose is doubtful”. According to Pearson and Stephens , reading was seen in the mid- 1960s as a perceptual process: first readers decode letters in a printed text into sounds, then they listen to these sounds and understand the words. In fact, reading was seen as a similar skill to listening: the eye works only as a decoder of the written text, and comprehension happens by listening. This view of reading made it a prerequisite for teachers to teach phonetics to their students if they wanted them to understand what they read. A well-known example of such theories is Gough’s bottom-up theory , where reading is seen as a linear process in which letters are i

done automatically with no attention needed. Therefore, when text decoding is efficient and automatic, attention will be directed towards comprehension. According to Samuels and Kamil , such linear models have a serious deficiency because they “pass information along in one direction only and do not permit the information contained in a higher stage to influence the processing of a lower stage” 13 . Moreover, according to Stanovich, a serious deficiency of the bottom up theory is the lack of feedback “ in that no mechanism is provided to allow for processing stages which occur later in the system to influence processing which occurs earlier in the system” Furthermore, such models do not explain why the reading process is not affected by context or prior knowledge. In addition to these shor

The model that best represents the top down theory is Goodman’s psycholinguistic model of reading . He believes that reading is meaning oriented: readers bring their knowledge and experience when they read. They sample, select from the text and make assumptions and predictions based on cues from letters, words, and syntax, and while they read they accept or reject their predictions by using their knowledge and experience that they had from the beginning. Goodman argues that: Reading is a selective process. It involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input on the basis of the reader’s expectation. As this partial information is processed, tentative decisions are madeto be confirmed, rejected, or refined as reading processes. 16 Goodman does not see re

and cannot generate predictions” 18 . Therefore, if beginners are presented with a new subject in which their knowledge is limited, then how can they compensate from bottom-up ability, since it is itself is weak and incomplete. Another shortcoming, according to Samuels and Kamil, is that the amount of time needed to make predictions, even for the skilled reader, is more than the time needed to decode and identify words. In other words, it is easier and more efficient for a skilled reader to identify all the words than to make predictions and then confirm or reject them. Consequently, the top-down model fails to describe skilled reading behaviour. Bottom-up and top-down theories are almost the opposite of each other, and seem mutually exclusive, but neither of them can fully explain the rea

on other knowledge sources, regardless of their level in the processing hierarchy, Stanovich was one of the researchers who succeeded in combining both interactive models provide a better account of the existing data on the use of orthographic structure and sentence context by good and poor readers. According to Stanovich’s model, reading involves a number of processes. Readers who are weak in one process will rely on other processes to compensate for the weaker one. For example, a poor reader who is slow and inaccurate at word identification that is bottom up but knows a lot about the text subject will overcome his or her weakness by relying on his or her knowledge that is top down. Thus, the Stanovich model is interactive in the sense that any process, regardless of its position, may com

that might be affected by different variables. Based on their source, these variables can be divided into two main groups. The first group of variables are related to the reader, while the second main group of variables are related to the text. For thepurpose of this review, I propose a third group of variables that is related to testing. The following is a brief overview of these three groups of variables that may have an effect on the reading process. I will start with the reader variables and their direct and indirect relation to reading comprehension. The reader plays an important role in the process of reading. He or she is no longer seen as a passive decoder of the written symbols, but as an active meaning- constructor in the reading process. The reader especially in the top-down app

than reading ability” Several studies have found that the background knowledge of the text has a positive effect on levels of performance in reading comprehension tests. Test takers are generally found to perform better whenever they are introduced to subject areas with which they are familiar. According to Kitao , being either very familiar or completely unfamiliar with the text can adversely affect performance in a reading comprehension test. When test takers are very familiar with the text subject matter, then they may answer questions without comprehending the text. At the other extreme, fluent readers may not perform well if they have no background knowledge at all of the text. Knowledge of text structure is essential for reading comprehension. Identifying the organizational structure

Grabe stated that L2 students “needed to be taught strategies to read more efficiently e.g., guess from context, define expectations, make inferences about the text, skim ahead to fill in the context, etc.” 27 . According to Barnett , reading strategies are the comprehension processes which readers use to comprehend what they are reading. These processes may include skimming, scanning, guessing word meanings from context, etc. She argues that using efficient reading strategies will help L2 students to understand more than those who do not. In addition, these taxonomies of reading “have been widely used not only for reading syllabus design..., but also for the development of test specifications and items in EFL/ESL reading assessment” 28 The distinction between reading ‘skills’ and reading

CHAPTER II. TESTING READING COMPREHENSION IN ALL LEVELS 2.1. Reading tasks in different CEFR levels Although it seems that testing reading comprehension is an easy task to accomplish, nevertheless the complexity and ambiguity of the nature of reading comprehension make it a challenging one. Alderson argues, however, that one should develop reading comprehension tests even though one’s understanding of its nature is “faulty, partial and possibly never perfectible” 31 . The level of reading proficiency could be close to A2 as defined by the Council of Europe Common European Framework in their ‘Overall Reading Comprehension’ scale. Their level will be referred to in the study as ‘post- beginner’. The test included items that attempted to assess five reading comprehension sub- skills They are:

choice tests, the child has to select one response of a choice of three or four that they think corresponds to the correct answer. This type of task is somewhat more sensitive than yes/no questions because there are more response options but less sensitive than open-ended questions. It is also subject to the same criticism as true/ false judgements, in that answers to questions will necessarily be provided as one response option, so that children who do not, for example, naturally make inferences while reading might, nevertheless, recognize an inference option as the correct response. Although, as with true/false questions, the child does not need to construct a verbal response, the processing demands of multiple-choice tests can be quite complex since the child has to read and compare the

reader, usually from a choice of 3–5 words. The missing words can be deleted from a passage or from isolated sentences, but for the purposes of testing comprehension of text, a passage should be used. Such tests, like true/false and multiple-choice tests, have the advantage that they can be administered to children in groups. In the original cloze procedure, every fifth or seventh word is omitted, and readers are requested to guess the missing words. The idea is that the cloze procedure assesses the fit between the text and the reader – and provides results that can be compared across texts and readers. Texts with difficult to guess words are in general more difficult than other texts in many ways at all levels. However, the original cloze procedure was heavily criticized for not being spe

However, difficulties of the two groups of children seemed to have different sources: the problems of the children with neurological difficulties seemed to stem from their difficulties in retrieving the knowledge-based and text-based information that was fundamental to the inference, whereas the group without neurological disorders was more likely to be able to retrieve the relevant information of both sorts, but to have problems integrating the information to answer the inference question. An obvious disadvantage of open-ended questions is that at least younger children need to be tested individually, though older children might be able to write their responses. Another disadvantage is that the quality of children’s responses is likely to be limited by their general expressive language sk

for some time 11 felt better after the talk B1 Level illiam Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His mother was called Mary Arden. She came from a rich family. His father, John, was a businessman who sold gloves, wool and meat. William went to Stratford Grammar School where he learned a little Latin and Greek. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582. She was eight years older than him. They had three children, Susannah, bom in 1 583. and the twins Judith and Harnnet, born in 1585. There are no descendants of the Shakespeare family alive today. It is possible that in 1587 William Shakespeare joined a group of travelling actors and left Stratford because he was in trouble for stealing a deer but nobody is sure if this is true or if the date is correct. By 1592 he was definitely an a

Stratford. In 1616 he died of a fever and he is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. In his will he left his wife his second-best bed. This may mean that he did not love his wife very much but it may also mean that he was trying to avoid paying death duties. First reading. Are these events in Shakespeare's life definite (write D) or possible (write Р )? 1. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.____________ 2. Shakespeare stole a deer in Stratford.____________________ 3. Shakespeare left Stratford in 1587._____________________ 4. By 1592 Shakespeare was writing plays in London.________ 5. Shakespeare wrote 36 plays. ___________________________ 6. Shakespeare wrote three kinds of play.__________________ 7. Shakespeare was recognized as one of the finest playwrights of his time

Unfortunately we did not take the name of the person we spoke to, but it was a female with a Liverpool accent. As we told this person on the phone, the police refused to break open the hire car for us. They are not allowed to do that. So Z could not get at my handbag or our luggage. We were penniless in London and my boyfriend needed hospital treatment for what those thugs did to him. it was only because I know people i n London and I was able to borrow money that we could get back to Edinburgh at a"1. On the phone we asked you to collect the car for us to drive back to Edinburgh and give us back my handbag and all our luggage. Will you please do this? As I have explained, we have no way of doing it ourselves. And please write again withdrawing a l l your threats. I think my boyfriend

Shiona and her boyfriend could not return the car on time The letter from the car hire company was a surprise to Shiona because the police refused to break it open. because the keys were stolen when they were mugged Task 1 for B2 level students. Before the development of movable metal type in the mid-15th century and for some time thereafter, news was disseminated by word of mouth, by written letters, or by public notices. Not until 1609 were the earliest known newspapers published. The word news was not coined until a century later. By 1645 Stockholm had a court paper, which is still published. Early newspapers were small in size, usually consisting of only one page. They had neither headlines nor advertising and looked more like newsletters than today's broadsheet papers with their b

be an electronic information service instantly available in every home. Many publishers already include an on-line version of their newspaper on the Internet, which can be accessed by anybody with a personal computer and a modem. Questions: 1) Where was the first American daily newspaper published? [ Philadelphia ] 2) The pronoun “They” in line (6) refers to ……………. [ early newspapers ] 3) The word “spawning” in line (11) is closest in meaning to ……………. [ creating / making / starting ] 4) Write a title for this passage. [ Newspapers / News / History of Newspapers / Newspapers Development ] 5) What is the total number of daily and weekly newspapers in America? [ 8500 ] 6) How did people know news before 1609? [ word of mouth, written letters, public notices ] 7) What does the third paragraph

Research studies have shown that human factors contribute to 95 per cent of accidents, road factors to about one quarter, and vehicle factors to fewer than five per cent. The main human errors are: going too fast for the conditions; failing to give way at junctions; following too closely; overtaking improperly; and misperceiving or misjudging the road situation ahead. Road deficiencies that are main contributory factors are: poor design of layout and control at junctions; inadequate signing, road marking, and lighting; slippery roads; and obstructions on the road, such as parked vehicles. The main vehicle factors are defects in tyres, brakes, and lights, arising from poor maintenance of the vehicle. Extensive remedial measures aimed at improving road safety have been developed in the field

b. 1 million c. 1.5 million d. 15 million 3) The pronoun “They” in line (2) refers to: a. population b. people c. roads d. rates 4) The word “remedial” in line (3) is closest in meaning to: a. radical b. new c. corrective d. accurate 5) What is “secondary safety”? a. reduction of accidents b. alleviation of injury c. the “three Es” d. none of the above 6) Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? a. Traffic Laws b. Road Design c. Road Safety d. Careless Drivers 7) Why there are fewer death rates on urban areas? a. drivers do not drive fast b. drivers are more cautious c. drivers know their way d. drivers are much older 8) Australia was the first country in: a. building safe roads 38

b. protecting pedestrians c. legislating seat belt laws d. reducing highway speed limit 9) The pronoun “it” in line (24) refers to: a. publicity b. legislation c. death d. injury 10) The word “barriers” in line (28) could be replaced by: a. sides b. rules c. signs d. fences Reading tasks for C1 levels. N e w s p a p e r s t o r y p e o p l e Newspaper story 1 Businessman gave waitress $10,000 tip -it's like a fairy story. British businessman Gordon Williams had a big surprise for a waitress at a bar in New York City. At the end of the evening he left her a tip of $10,000. The waitress, Gloria Latrobc, was working at Top Club near Times Square in the centre of New York for a few weeks only. She is studying psychology at New York University. Miss Latrobe said, 'Gordon spent the eveni

Newspaper story 2 Businessman Gordon 'Williams, who gave a waitress in New York a $ 10,000 tip, docs not have $10,000 in his account. His bank will not pay the cheque. T just want this to go away,' says unhappy Gordon Williams. 'My wife wants to know why I did it. Well, I don't remember doing it at all. The bar has a paper that I signed, so it must be true, but 1 don't remember doing it.' Unfortunately for Mr Williams, who has two children, the scory will not go away yet. Gloria Latrobc has been on coast-to-coast television in the US, telfing the story again and again. The day after she got the tip, Miss Latrobe described Mr Wdliams as 'a very nice English gentleman.' Even now she says, T hope his family isn't angry with him.' But there is a happy en

2.2. Assessment criteria in reading activities The previous chapter discussed reading models and the main variables that might have an effect on reading comprehension and assessment. These variables differ in the way and degree they affect the test taker. Test developers and users usually pay special attention to these variables in order to reduce their effect on the level of performance and therefore increase test validity and reliability. Here, I will discuss some issues and considerations in language testing especially validity and reliability and test specifications . An understanding of the principles and uses of assessment is essential for all teachers, and in particular for teachers of reading. 32 Reading assessment has great power to inform researchers, teachers, administrators, an

number of very good books provide detailed descriptions and discussions of the many options noted for assessment practices. 33 The third section considers a number of innovations and challenges for reading assessment. Reading assessments are meant to provide feedback on the skills, processes, and knowledge resources that represent reading abilities, though it is important to note that different assessment practices may assume different theories of reading and reading development. Assessment in general can be categorized in a number of ways, and all assessment frameworks serve important purposes. Commonly, assessment has been categorized in terms of a) norm-reference and criterion reference testing; b) formative and summative assessment; c) formal and informal (or alternative) assessment; a

proficiency tests of different types. In most respects, proficiency assessment represents high-stakes testing because decisions are often made about students’ future educational goals and opportunities. Alternatively, this type of assessment may lead to special education or reading-disability designations – labels that, once applied, are hard to remove from a student’s record. Reading-proficiency assessment is also sometimes used for student placement, for policy decisions, for curriculum changes, or for program, teacher, or institutional evaluations. Assessment of classroom learning Assessment of reading improvement in classroom settings involves the measurement of skills and knowledge gained over a period of time and is commonly referred to as summative or achievement testing . Sometimes

normative (how students compare to each other) or criterion-based (how well students perform on curriculum standards and established learning goals). These two testing purposes should lead to somewhat different tests and different scoring. To give the simplest example, normative testing would discourage every student from receiving an “5,” but criterion-based tests may include all students receiving an “5.” Assessment for learning Assessment for learning involves a type of reading assessment that is not commonly discussed and is somewhat innovative in discussions of L2 assessment. This assessment purpose is intended to support and promote student learning, in this case, the improvement of reading abilities. Performance evaluation or a record of outcomes is not the goal; instead, the goal i

from the program or school, and innovative assessments that highlight specific school or program goals as an example can be , project work, motivation, extensive reading, writing skills, or collaboration and group work. Evaluations of curricular success and teacher effectiveness represent different types of evaluation goals and extend beyond the immediate goals of student assessment, but they are important considerations for any large-scale assessment of reading curricula as well as programmatic needs analysis. Assessment for research purposes Assessment for research purposes is a topic that is not generally addressed in assessment chapters, but it is one that is very important for reading research results as well as for their implications for reading instruction. Research studies sometime

Any single technique for assessment will necessarily be limited in the picture it can provide. . . .We should always be aware that the techniques we use will be imperfect, and therefore we should always seek to use multiple methods and techniques, and we should be modest in the claims we make. In this description of L2 assessment practices, for ease of explanation, we link reading- proficiency assessment with standardized testing and assessment of learning primarily with classroom-based measures. There is certainly an amount of overlap between standardized and classroom settings, and some of these instances are noted, but this simplification eliminates the need to detail all crossover points. Standardized assessment makes a serious effort to capture crucial aspects of the component abiliti

outline the many component abilities of reading comprehension, it is less straightforward to capture all of these abilities in reading-assessment tasks. Standardized assessment practices are far more constrained by concerns of validity, reliability, time, cost, usability, and consequence than classroom assessment practices. These concerns limit the types of reading-assessment tasks that can be used. Also, the context for standardized assessment precludes any strong assumption of a match to authentic reading in the “real world.” When students read a text as part of standardized assessment, they know that they are reading for an assessment purpose. Nonetheless, more realistic texts, tasks, and contexts are helpful as long as they do not pretend to be authentic “real-world” reading tasks. A f

construct, and how they engage L2 learners in fair and appropriate assessment tasks. The primary purpose of assessment tasks is to collect information to make inferences about students’ reading abilities. Different reading tasks should help provide information about many component reading abilities as well as reading comprehension more generally. Reading assessment tasks come in many recognizable forms in standardized assessment as well as a few uncommon options. The most major task options used in standardized reading assessments. Standardized reading assessment task formats 1. Cloze 2. Gap-filling formats (rational cloze formats) 3. C-tests (retain initial letters of words removed) 4. Cloze elide (remove extra word) 5. Text segment ordering 6. Text gap 7. Choosing from a “heading bank” f

tests. I will comment selectively on a number of them, and identify formats that are less common but that do appear in standardized assessments. Cloze assessments with random word deletions (every sixth word, or every seventh word) are not automatically valid assessments of reading abilities, particularly when students are expected to write in the missing words. Such tests become production measures and are not appropriate for L2 reading assessment. Much more useful options are gap-filling measures rational cloze formats that target specific words purposefully e.g, prepositions, verbs rather than delete every seventh word. However, even with gap-filling formats, a reading measure should not ask students to fill in words as a production task that they do not know or have not already seen fr

straightforward though difficult to score. Alternative summary formats can include, for example, choosing the best from among three summary options and identifying the weaknesses of unacceptable options. Information-transfer formats, especially visual representations of text information, have powerful construct-validity support. However, they can be difficult to score and can have very high item interdependence. Project- performance evaluation is a newer task format that evaluates test takers as they read texts and then perform in groups to carry out a larger project. It is an interesting option, but is problematic on several validity grounds. Skimming and scanning tasks are well-known to teachers but are not common as standardized reading assessment tasks. Classroom-based assessment pract

classroom setting is, in principle, countered by the continual nature of assessment practices of all types in this context. Several types of informal assessment options are available to teachers, including the following: 1. Observations 2. Self-reporting measures 3. Progress charts 4. Performance inventories 5. Participation and engagement records 6. Portfolios Four ways to test inference making The text Hanna had so many green tomatoes in her garden. They would not be ripe before the frost set in. She wondered whether she could make a kind of jam. She decided to go and buy some nice jars. 34. Afflerbach, 2007 From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press. p 268 35. Alderson, 2000, Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Ca

The words to choose from are a: story appropriate/ b: sentence appropriate /c: semantically inappropriate. Each general type of informal assessment category can be carried out by means of several specific tasks and in different formats. Regardless of informal assessment formats used, teachers and administrators have a responsibility to focus on appropriate tasks and interpretations of task outcomes so that students are not evaluated unfairly. The list above identifies a large number of informal assessment options that can be used in ongoing classroom reading-skills assessment. The items in this list are grouped according to the six major informal assessment types noted above. Many of the assessment options noted below are fairly simple and straightforward for teachers to use as means to ga

tasks and activities. 14. Ask students about their reading progress. 15. Ask students about their goals for reading with various texts and tasks. 16. Keep charts of student readings. 17. Keep charts of student reading-rate growth. 18. Record how far a student reads on an extended reading task. 19. Have a student read and then have a discussion on the text (one-on-one). 20. Have a student read aloud for the teacher / tester and make notes, or use a checklist or note miscues on the text (one-on-one). 21. Have students do think-alouds while reading (one-on-one). 22. Have students enact a scene / episode / event from a text. 23. Note the uses of texts in a multistep project and discuss. 24. Have students fill out simple questionnaires of interests and engagement levels in various tasks. 25. Cr

contributing to a project, reporting on a book they read, or performing in a scripted project such as a theater reading, a news report, etc. should include multiple assessment points e.g., observe each student every 15 minutes, note performance of multiple steps in a performance. Reviews of student reading records, reading and fluency charts, and reading portfolios should include notes and comments on students’ activities at multiple points in the school semester. Otherwise, it is often the case that the most recent one or two recollections dominate the assessment. Self-assessment by students is an important component of informal assessment and there are multiple options that teachers can explore. Self-assessments can require students to a) chart their progress on various skills; b) note w

engaging in assessment for learning represent only a subset of what teachers and students can do together to enhance learning through ongoing assessment feedback. In addition, many, if not most, of the informal assessment practices noted in the previous section as well as standard assessment formats create outstanding opportunities for teachers to engage students and groups of students in feedback. When implementing assessment for learning, the first step is to agree upon feedback mechanisms from students to teachers that allow students to signal difficulties that they are having. Responses from teachers should a) address skills needed to improve learning; b) encourage greater student awareness of what successful outcomes would look like; and c) provide opportunities to help students becom

7. Students engage in self-assessment, monitoring their comprehension and their levels of success in carrying out during-reading and post-reading activities. 8. Students work in groups to answer questions and are given time to work out answers together. 9. Students set learning goals at the outset of instruction. 10. Students assess the work of other students, usually through comments rather than specific grades. 11. Students select a peer who will answer a question, for example, by drawing a student’s name from a hat. 12. Students learn to monitor their non-comprehension of a text or task and signal for assistance when they have difficulty. 13. Students review their own learning effectiveness. 14. Students redo their answers on a reading task or a quiz, often with peer support. 15. Studen

skills might include comprehension of academic material, discourse awareness for reading difficult texts, and writing from text resources. At more basic levels of L2 reading ability, students can be assessed and placed according to vocabulary knowledge, oral passage reading, grammar knowledge, and basic comprehension. Diagnostic assessment can be used for placement purposes, although the goals for placement and diagnosis should be distinct. Diagnostic assessment should present a battery of skills to students on a given ability level that may cause difficulties or alternatively should already be well-learned by students. Results should indicate the need for specific teaching practices and possible tutorial work that is designed specifically to address the weaknesses of each student. In many

CONCLUSION In this graduating paper, I have attempted to analyze the quantitative data of the present study which seeks to examine the effect of testing reading comprehension in English (L2) for university and secondary school students by using both multiple-choice and short answer questions. Besides the two main variables, the language of questions and the testing method, there were other variables which were included, namely: gender and five sub-skills of reading comprehension. Unlike Shohamy who found that “the testing methods – and language of questions – can make a difference in the assessment of the trait and can affect the scores that students obtain on reading comprehension tests” 36 , the results of the four main t-test studies in the present research show that there are no signif

they had problems with understanding the passage itself. In other words, if the students were able to understand the passage, they would have been able to answer the questions regardless of their language, whether it is Uzbek or English. This underlines the importance of teaching students the strategies and sub-skills of reading comprehension to enable them to understand and deal with different types of texts and questions. Reading is a complex cognitive skill that can be affected by various text, reader, and test variables. A considerable amount of research has been devoted to examining these variables. This study is part of the effort to understanding some aspects of reading comprehension and its assessment. Assessment is sometimes treated as a bad word. But all of us engage in assessmen

Bibliography 1. Mirziyoyev Sh. The resolution No 2909 of the President of Uzbekistan “ On Measures for Further Development of the Higher Education System" dated from April 20, 2017 2. Mirziyoyev Sh.. From speech at Ibrat school, Namangan, April, 2018 3. Aebersold, J. A. & Field, M. L. From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press. (1997).P 37 4. Alderson, J. C. Reading in a foreign language: A reading problem or a language problem? In J.C. Alderson & A.H. Urquhart (Eds.), Reading in a foreign language (1984). (pp.1-27). New York: Longman. 5. Alderson, J. C. & Lukmani, Y. Cognition and reading: cognitive levels as embodied in test questions. Reading in a Foreign Language 5 (2), (1989). 253-70. 60

6. Alderson, J. C. Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2000).p 19 7. Afflerbach, From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press 2007. p 268 8. Geva, E.. Facilitating reading comprehension through flowcharting. Reading Research Quarterly, 18, (1983) 384-405. 9. Grabe, W.. Current development in second language reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 25,3, (1991) (p. 378) 10. Gough, P.. One second of reading. In Kavanagh, J., Mattingly, I. (Eds.), Language by ear and by eye: The relationships between speech and reading (1982). Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 331-335 11. Goodman, K. S. Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game. In Ruddell, R., Ruddell, M., Singer, H. (Eds.), Theoretical models and processe

18. Pearson, P. D. & Tierney, R. On becoming a thoughtful reader: Learning to read like a writer. In A.C. Purves, & O. Niles (Eds.), Becoming readers in a complex society Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (1984). p.144. 19. Rupp, A., Ferne, T., & Choi, H. How assessing reading comprehension with multiple-choice questions shapes the construct: A cognitive processing perspective. Language Testing, 23 (4), (2006)p . 441-474. 20. Samuels, S.J., & Kamil, M. Models of the reading process. In Carrell, P., Devine, J., & Eskey, D. (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading New York: Cambridge University Press (1988). (pp.22-36). 21. Smith, F. Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1985). (p. 100) 22. Shohamy, E.. Does the testing method make a difference? The case of re

30. Zwaan, R. A. & Brown, C. M.. The influence of language proficiency and comprehension skill on situation-model construction. Discourse Process 21, (1996) p 289-327. Internet sources 1. https://study.com/.../what-is-a-reading-model-definition-over ... 2. https://www.slideshare.net/JenniferOcampo/models-of-reading 3. www.readingrockets.org 4. https://busyteacher.org/4035-how-to-teach-a-perfect-reading . 5. https://www.understood.org/.../11-methods-for-teaching-rea d.. 6. https://agendaweb.org/reading-exercises 7. http://esl-bits.net/interact/sets/cloze1/cloze-1.htm 8. https://elt-resourceful.com/tag/reading-tasks/ 9. https://www.ntid.rit.edu/sea/processes/comprehension/ 10. https://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/assessment.html 11. https://www.britishcouncil.org/.../answer_key_assessing_r

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