Testing Reading
Comprehension
The Nature Of The Reading Comprehension
At this stage in our examination of reading
difficulties, it would be helpful to attempt to identify some
of the specific skills involved in reading. Broadly speaking,
these can be defined as the ability to;
 Recognize words and word group, associating
sounds with their corresponding graphic symbols;
 Deduce the meaning of words by
a. Understanding words formation
b. Contextual clues
 Understand the explicit stated information
 Understand relations within the sentence,
especially
a. Elements of the sentence structure
b. Negation
c. Fronting and theme
d. Complex embedding
 Understand relations between parts of a text trough both
lexical devices, Grammatical cohesive devices especially
anaphoric and cataphoric reference and connectives
 Perceive temporal and spatial relationships, and also
sequences of ideas;
 Understand conceptual meaning, especially
a. Quantity and amount
b. Definiteness and indefiniteness
c. Comparison and degree
d. Means and instrument
e. Cause, result, purpose, reason, condition, addition,
contrast, concession;
 Anticipate and predict what will come next in the text
 Identify the main idea and other salient features in a text
 Generalize and draw conclusions
 Understand information not explicitly stated by
a. Making inferences
b. Understanding figurative language
 skim and scan
 read critically
 Adopt a flexible approach and vary reading strategies
according to the type of material being read and the
purpose for which it is being read.
Initial Stages Of Reading: Matching Tests
The tests described in the first half of this
section are concerned purely with word and sentence
recognition. They test students’ ability to discriminate
visually between words which are spelt in fairly
similar ways.
There are three kind of test in matching test;
-Word Matching
- Sentence Matching
- Picture and Sentence Matching
Word Matching
The testees are required to draw a line under
the word which is the same as the word on the left.
Example;
Sheep
shop/shape/sleep/heap/sheep/soap
Top
stop/tap/top/ton/pot/
Wonder wander/window/wonder/fonder/won
Sentence Matching
The testees are required to recognize as quickly
as possible sentences which consist of the same words
in the same order. They read a sentence, followed by
four similar sentences, only one of which is exactly the
same as the previous one.
Example;
1. Tom is not going to your school
A. Tom is not going to your pool
B. Tom is going to your school
C. Tom is not going to your school
D. Tom is not coming to your school
Picture and Sentence
Matching
Type 1
The testees are required to identify the correct
picture and look at four pictures and then read a
sentence about one of the pictures.
Example;
Choose the correct picture below.
1. She is cooking in the kitchen
Type 2
This type is similar to the previous but is much
more economical in that only one picture is required
for each item. They have to select the correct sentence.
Example;
A. Sister bear is talking to the
butterfly
B. Sister bear is watering the
flowers
C. Sister bear is spreading the
seeds
D. Sister bear is playing with the
butterfly
Type 3
This test has to select the appropriate
sentences which match the picture.
Example;
Four of the following sentences agree with the
picture. Put a circle round the letter of each of
the four sentences below.
A. There are four trees in the
garden.
B. The girl and the dog are
sitting in the middle.
C. The girl is holding a glass.
D. Mother is looking at
father.
E. Father is eating lunch box.
F. The girl is feeding the
dog.
G. Mother is reading a story
book.
H. They are playing together.
Intermediate And Advantage
Stage Of Reading; Matching Tests
Type 1
The testees are required match the meaning of
certain term in a dictionary with appropriate shapes
which those terms denote. This particular item
measures the ability of the testees to understand the
kinds of definitions usually found in a dictionary –
an essential skill required in learning and using a
foreign language.
Example; ( please look at your book page 110 )
Type 2
The following item type is included to provide
another example of how reading comprehension matching
tests can be based on dictionary. Again, the item is
intended for use at a fairly advanced level.
Example; (please, look at your book page 111)
Type 3
The following item is similar to the previous type
but here testees are required to match appropriate words
or information in the text with correct parts of a diagram.
Example;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
6. ………………………………
7. ………………………………
8. ………………………………
9. ………………………………
10. ………………………………
Type 4
This test is used to measure the students’
ability in understanding a text.
Example; ( please, look at your book page 112-113 )
True / False Item
Multiple – Choice Items (A): Short Texts
Type 1
These particular items, however, have been included
here because it is felt that a comprehension of the text is
generally of at least as much importance as an
understanding of the meaning of the words for selection.
The following three examples show the use of this item
type at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels
respectively.
Example;
1. The eyes are wonderful teachers – even musicians, who
deal with sounds, learn as much by (doing, playing,
watching, practicing) as by listening.
2. The housewife who could not afford to buy clothes
would spend hours at her spinning wheel, spinning her
wool into yarn – a job which took little skill but required
a lot of (ability, patience, talent, wisdom) and was done
by the fireside during the long winter evenings.
3. Two-thirds of the country’s (fuel, endeavour, industry,
energy) comes from imported oil, while the remaining
one-third comes from coal. Moreover, soon the country
will have its first nuclear power station.
Type 2
The testees are required to identify the correct
paraphrase of a statement from a choice of four of five.
They are told in the rubric that the (four) statements may
refer to the entire sentence or only part of the sentence.
Example;
1. In spite of the loud music, I soon managed to fall asleep.
A. The loud music soon helped me to fall asleep.
B. I soon fell asleep as a result of the loud music.
C. The loud music made me unable to fall asleep soon.
D. I soon fell asleep even though the music was loud.
Type 3
This item type consists of a very short
reading extract of only a few sentences (or
sometimes of only one sentence). The testees are
required to answer only one comprehension test
item on each reading passage.
Example;
The president was talking to a young woman in the
crowd when Tim suddenly caught sight of a man standing
several yards behind her. The man had something in his
hand: it was a short stick.
What made Tim notice the man in the crowd?
A. He was very close to Tim.
B. The president was talking to him.
C. He was standing in front of the woman.
D. He was carrying a stick.
Multiple – Choice Items (B):
Longer Texts
Completion Items
Types of completion items for testing reading
comprehension are divided into two groups for ease of
treatment: Type 1 consisting of blanks for completion in
the items following the text; and type 2 consists of blanks
in the text itself.
Type 1
Unless carefully constructed, this type of completion
test can become merely a matching exercise in which the
words and phrases required in the completion are
determined after a process of matching the whole item
with the appropriate part of the text.
NEWRON THEATRE
FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS
Monday, 8 January for 2 weeks
MY FAT FRIEND
Charles Laurence’s popular comedy
Wednesday, 24 January to
Saturday, 27 January
Shanghai Festival Ballet
Presents
SWAN LAKE
Monday, 29 January for one week
RUN AND KILL
Tim Danby’s thrilling mystery
1. The SHANGHAI Festival Ballet will perform on
………….evenings.
2. ……………….will be the most amusing play.
3. If you like dancing, you should see ………………
4. The play written by …………………is very exciting.
Type 2
In this item type the testees are required to
complete the blank spaces in a reading text. The blanks
have been substituted for what the test writer considers
are the most significant content words.
Example;
When we slide something along the floor, it will
cause (1) ………..if something is very (2) ………, there will
be a lot o friction between it and the ground. However,
friction is (3) …….when something rolls instead of (4)
……… The invention of the (5) …………was really an
attempt to reduce friction. Unless there is snow or ice, it
is much harder to (6) ……….something on a box or sledge
than in a cart. Ball-bearings are used a lot in machinery
to (7) ………friction.
Rearrangement
There are two types of test items in the
rearrangement that useful to test the ability to understand a
process or sequence of events in the narration. in this item
students were asked to rewrite sentences that have been
randomized into the correct order by using numbers or
letters of a sequence of sentences that have been at random
and are usually advised to provide them one or two correct
answers. Because the first two or three answers are in the
wrong order will make the remaining sentences are in the
wrong order. So, one wrong answer leads to an incorrect
answer the second, third, and so on.
Type 1
The first type of this item the student was told to
rearrange the letters of sentences in their correct order in
the box.
Type 2
Type is based on reading and text comprehension of
students had to rearrange the specific information
contained in the text and the students must write a letters
of sentences in their correct order in the box.
Example; please, look at your book page 30
1. The dogs were separated from their human masters
and were put into large fields.
2. For instance, they wagged their tails, they barked and
growled, and they fawned on animals which possessed
food.
3. Psychologists observing them found that they reacted
towards each other in much the same way as they
used to respond to people.
4. Recently an experiment was conducted with a group of
dogs to find out how much their behaviour was, in fact,
simply a result of human environment.
5. Puppies born to those dogs and kept out of contact
with people showed the same bahaviour patterns: they
were extremely wild and afraid of human beings.
Cloze Test Procedure
Cloze test function to measure the level of
difficulty reading the text because this is a
reliable means to determining the a particular
text to match the student's ability. General
purpose of these tests is possible to measure
reading comprehension but can now be used as
a measure of language skills and as an
important feature in language testing.
Show White
Once upon a time, there lived a little girl named Snow White.
She lived with her cruel stepmother (1)… a castle because her parents
were (2)… when she was a child. Snow White (3)… into a beautiful girl.
Her beauty (4)… everyone jealous included her stepmother. One (5)…
she heard her stepmother talking about (6)... Snow White in the castle
because she (7)… to be admitted as the most (8)… woman in the
kingdom. Snow White didn’t (9)… to die, so she decided to (10)… away
from the castle. In the (11)… of the night when everyone was (12)…,
Snow White silently escaped. After a long (13)…, Snow White felt very
tired and hungry (14)… she went on continue her running. (15)… a
while, she came into a (16)… wood. There she found a little (17)… . She
knocked the door but no (18)… answered. She went in and found (19)…
foods there. She ate the food (20)… fell asleep. Meanwhile, the seven
dwarfs (21)… coming home. They went inside and (22)… when they seen
there was a (23)… beautiful girl sleep on their bed. (24)… was frightened
when she saw the (25)… . Doc, one of the dwarfs asked (26) … name,
Snow White told them her (27)…, why did she runs away and (28)…. The
dwarfs felt a pity on (29)…. They offered Snow White to live (30)… them
in the wood. Snow White accepted the offering and so after that she
lived happily in the wood with the seven dwarfs.
Open-ended Item
The term 'open-ended items' is usually used to
indicate a subjective question that gets a response
from the students. The desired response may range
from one-word answer, a sentence or two sentences.
(One- word answer)
Give the name of the town where the writer had a
bad accident.
(Answer in a few words)
You have a friend who is keen on cross-country
running. Which event can he enter at the end of the
month?
(Sentence answer)
According to the article, why do you think so few
foreign cars have been imported into Singapore
recently.
Correct answer in a grammatically correct sentence or a
sentence containing only a minor error………………………………..3
Correct answer in a sentence containing one or two minor
errors (but causing no difficulty in
understanding)……………………….2
Correct answer but very difficult to understand because of
one or more major grammatical
errors………………………………………………….1
Incorrect answer in a sentence with or without
errors…………………..0
Story Reading
a. Skimming term used to indicate the method of reading
to understand texts from beginning to end to know the
essence of the story. In the test skimming usually
students are taught to read carefully and given a
question aimed at the general points and outline only
b. Scanning, the term is intended to be used when
reading skills to search for specific information. On
scanning tests students are usually given the questions
before they read the text. So as that they are only
looking for specific information related with a
question.