A Study on Reading Comprehension Tests and Teachers’Perspectives on Reading Instruction

• Main Authors: Feng-wei Hsu, 許峯維
• Other Authors: Shih-guey Joe
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/59497364271758905357

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 100 === The current study aims to analyze reading comprehension tests in the SAET and the English test of TVEE from the year 2001 to the year 2010 in terms of distributions of test items, and then further to investigate senior and vocational high school teachers’ perspectives on the reading comprehension tests with respect to distributions of test items. Additionally, in order to explore associations between reading comprehension tests and teachers’ teaching of reading, viewpoints of the teachers on how to teach students reading with regard to three reading comprehension processes as the micro-comprehension process, the integrative comprehension process, and the macro-comprehension process, are probed into. Besides, on the strength of the same purpose, the teachers’ beliefs of reading instruction are major focuses in the research. In the research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data. That is, after the categorization of test items, they were analyzed quantitatively for showing their distributions. Qualitatively, twelve senior and vocational high school teachers were selected from five senior high schools and five vocational high schools in the north of Taiwan and interviewed with six open-ended questions to express their perspectives on the tests and reading instruction. After interviewing, the researcher took qualitative procedures to organize the data, grasp what they mean holistically, and present them with direct quotations. After the data analyses and integration, the major findings were presented based on three primary aspects: distributions of test items, teachers’ viewpoints on reading comprehension tests, and their perspectives on reading instruction. First of all, in both the SAET and the English test of TVEE in the past consecutive ten years, most of test items in reading comprehension tests dealt with the integrative comprehension process. Next, with respect to the phenomenon, most of the teachers considered that it should be adjusted that there should be more test items designed to focus on the contextual and global information, and overall comprehension. Finally, seven reading skills used to write seven types of test items are all contained in the teachers’ teaching of reading. That is, major points highlighted in reading comprehension tests conform to what the teachers put the emphasis on in their instruction in reading. Moreover, the majority of the points stressed in the instruction belong to the text-based mode. Eventually, on the basis of the major findings, there are two suggestions for test writers who design reading comprehension tests in the SAET and the English test of TVEE, and for senior and vocational high school teachers. Regarding test writers, the ratio of the integrative comprehension and the proportion of macro-comprehension could be more balanced. Namely, future reading tests could include more test items written to measure the macro-comprehension. As to senior and vocational high school English teachers, whether main points stressed in reading comprehension instruction can be associated more with reader-based or interactive modes can be pondered on.