Effects Of Item Order On Student Test Anxiety In Multiple-choice Reading Tests

In modern society, people are inevitably encountered with different kinds of testing. Sarason(1959: 26), a distinguished psychologist once said “We live in a test-conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance.” Therefore, when realizing the extensive purposes of testing, people find that testing has emerged as a potent anxiety-evoking stimulus and therefore a hot topic for research.Among all the variables affecting test anxiety, item order is not only a significant facet of test rubric in the framework of Bachman’s Communicative Language Testing Model, but a significant moderator in the relationship between test anxiety and test performance as well(Zeidner, 1998). The present study was designed to explore the effects of two types of item ordering(item difficulty ordering and content-coverage ordering) on test anxiety of the overall testees and those with different levels of trait test anxiety. Through a counterbalanced design, a total of 142 junior English majors were asked to take the multiple-choice reading tests drawn from the reading parts of American College Test in the traditional paper-and-pencil way. The results suggested that:(1) item difficulty ordering(easy-to-hard, hard-to-easy and random difficulty order) had significant effects on test anxiety of the testees, but no significant effect on their test scores. It had significant differences in three different trait anxiety groups. Increasing difficulty ordering(easy-to-hard ordering) could help to reduce test anxiety, and improve test scores.(2) content-coverage ordering(sequential, reverse and random ordering) had significant effects on test anxiety and scores of the overall testees and different trait anxiety groups; the higher trait test anxiety they had, the more significant effect there was. Sequential ordering could reduce student state test anxiety and facilitate their test performance.The paper suggested some practical ways for improving item ordering in traditional paper-and-pencil reading tests in order to reduce testees’ test anxiety and help their test performance.