THE CONSTRUCT OF READING FOR TESTING

Abstract

The purpose of this study is three-fold. The first is to provide the ideas of components of reading in order to make a practical test to assess Japanese students' English reading ability. Information will be given from four viewpoints.

1. thenatureofreading
2. thetheoreticalorlinguisticunderpinningsofreading
3. thetestformatofreading,and
4. classroomteachers'ideasbasedontheirteachingexperiences.

Another purpose is to investigate how much Japanese teachers and native English speaking teachers agree on the construct of reading. The third is to show how the new construct of reading is reflected in an actual reading test.

200 experienced English teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire consisting of 16 items. The teachers rated those items on a four-point scale according to the degree of importance of reading comprehension.

One result from the statistical analysis shows that ability to use schemata is more important to them than to use sentence level English. The results of cluster analysis will suggest more detailed and explainable components of reading both statistically and Iing-uistically. The comparative study between the native speakers' component and the Japanese teachers' component of the questionnaire results and the test format of an actual test will demonstrate (1) what is insufficient in the actual reading test and (2) what is causing the deviation between the idealized components and the actual reading tests.