An Empirical Study Of Effects Of Different Task Types In Reading Comprehension Performance

Reading is considered to be one of the most important information input sourcesin language acquisition as well as in EFL learning (English as a Foreign Language).Generally speaking, reading is regarded as the most direct and effective way to obtaininformation and develop language skills. Therefore, it serves as an ability of greatimportance that the EFL learners should grasp not only in their present studies butalso in their future careers. Reading assessments can be found in most large-scale testsboth at home and abroad because of the significant role reading plays in the process offoreign language learning. Specifically speaking, the reading comprehension partalways takes up a large proportion of the whole test. Thus, to some extent, scores thatthe test-takers receive in the reading comprehension part of an examination may playa decisive role on their performance in the whole test. Therefore, the author haschosen reading comprehension part as her research object to gain some insight intothe current reading programs in universities in China.Test-taker performance is affected by many factors, among which the test methodused to elicit the test performance is of great importance. Viewpoints on whethertest-takers perform differently if different task types are utilized to measure readingcomprehension differ greatly. Some researchers hold the view that task types make noor little difference if they are utilized to measure reading comprehension. Some otherresearchers advocate that different task types do pose significantly different effects onreading comprehension performance. Besides, little empirical research has beencarried out in China for the past few years. Therefore, there is a strong requirement forcarrying out this kind of research in China due to the different results of the previousstudies as well as inadequate empirical research in this field in China.The present study is on the basis of the framework of test method facets proposedby Bachman in1990. According to him, five major categories of test method facetsare included, namely, the testing environment, the test rubric, the nature of the inputthe test taker receives, the nature of the expected response to that input, and therelationship between input and responses. The present study focuses on the fourth category of test method facets, i.e. expected response, by manipulating test formats(MCQ, T/F and SAQ) in the reading comprehension experiment in order to study theinfluence exerted by types of response on test-takers’ performance.The participants of the present study are120sophomores who major in English atXi’an International Studies University. The participants of the present study took partin the reading comprehension tests which were designed by the author. After theexperimental test, the data of reading performance obtained by the intendedpopulation is analyzed by using SPSS18.0, in which descriptive statistics, one-wayANOVA, two-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient etc. are adopted.The results of the present study show that different test-takers perform differentlyif different task types are applied to measure reading comprehension. The test takerswith lower reading abilities are more influenced than test takers with higher readingabilities. Test takers perform the best on the task type of T/F, followed by the task typeof MCQ, then the task type of SAQ. At the end of the thesis, the author offers somesuggestions on EFL reading testing, teaching and future research.