Method
Method Effects on Reading Comprehension Test
Performance: Text Structure
Hajar Ghafarpour*1,
Dr. Mashallah Valikhani Dehaghani2 and Azam Mahmoodi3
Islamic Azad University,
Dehaghan branch, Esfahan, Iran
*Corresponding author: Hajar Ghafarpour, E-mail: [email protected]
If tests are to provide
accurate measures of the learners’ language ability, examiners must minimize
the influence of intervening factors. According to Bachman and Palmer (2000),
one of these intervening factors is text structure. The purpose of the present
study is to investigate the effect of text structure on reading comprehension
and also to investigate whether the influence of text structure differences
differs for texts with different difficulty levels and learners with different
proficiency levels. Tow texts, in cloze form, with two different text
structures (descriptive and problem-solution) were given to 30 participants of
two proficiency levels. The result indicated that text structure had a
significant effect on the scores obtained, with the scores on descriptive texts
being higher. The effect of different text structures was not significantly
different for different proficiency levels. By paying more attention to these
factors, examiners can enhance the validity of their tests.
[Hajar Ghafarpour, Dr. Mashallah Valikhani Dehaghani
and Azam Mahmoodi. Method Effects on
Reading Comprehension Test Performance: Text Structure. Life Sci J
2013;10(4s):436-441]. (ISSN: 1097-8135).http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 67
Key
words: text structure, test
method facets, reading comprehension
