The Effect of Text Structure on Iranian EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension as Measured by Multiple-choice and Cloze Tests

Subject Areas : Educational Psychology

Hedayat Eslami ¹ , Mahnaz Saeidi ² , Saeide Ahangari ³

1 - گروه زبان انگلیسی، واحد تبریز، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تبریز، ایران
2 - گروه زبان انگلیسی، واحد تبریز، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تبریز، ایران
3 - گروه زبان انگلیسی، واحد تبریز، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تبریز، ایران

Received: 2015-11-18 Accepted : 2016-02-20 Published : 2016-02-20

Keywords: text structure, response formats, Multiple-Choice Questions, multiple-choice cloze,

Abstract :

This study was an attempt to investigate Iranian EFL students' performance on reading comprehension tests with different text structures and response formats. The participants of the study included 228 students, comprising eight groups, selected based on the Preliminary English Test (PET). Four types of text structures, time sequence (T), description (D), causation (C), problem-solution (P) were selected and two types of response formats, Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) and Multiple-Choice Cloze tests (MCC), based on the four text structures were developed and administered to the eight groups. The results revealed that in both response formats, the students' performance on the more loosely organized text structures (T and D) was better than their performance on the more tightly organized ones (C and P). Furthermore, the students' performance on MCQ was significantly better than on MCC response format across all four text structures. The results of the study suggested that students performed better on T and D text structures compared to C and P in both response formats and that their performance on MCQ response format was better than their performance on MCC across all four text structures. The results of the study suggest that teachers and test developers can boost their students' performance on reading comprehension tests by choosing the most appropriate response formats for different text structures

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