Faculty Information |

TAKANO Aiko Faculty of Foreign Languages Department of Japanese Language Associate Professor

■ Title
Reading Comprehension in an Academic Study on the Research of Comparative Study of Two Reading Tests

■ Outline
  The purpose of this paper is (1) to investigate the characteristics of two reading tests, the "JLC test" and the "year-end test," (2) to examine the components of reading ability, and (3) to consider of development of reading comprehension test.
The "JLC test" is a proficiency-based test that is developed on a basis of the Can-Do Statements of JLC standards, which has been created to clarify the academic Japanese as a foreign language. The "year-end test" is an achievement test based on the curriculum of the course. The subjects were 66 foreign students enrolled in one-year intensive Japanese course, who wished to study at Japanese universities. The subjects were administered the JLC test and the year-end test in February 2008. The subjects answered four-option multiple-choice questions and true or false type questions.
The JLC test scores for the 59 subjects ranged from 33 to 94, with a median of 68.0 (SD=14.98). The distribution of scores was almost normal. On the other hand, the year-end test scores for the 66 subjects ranged from 38 to 100, with a median of 84.1 (SD=12.68). The distribution of scores was negatively skewed. The correlation between the JLC test scores and the year-end test scores was 0.63. Thus, the JLC test appears to measure somewhat different language skills from those measured by the year-end test.
In order to investigate the characteristics of two reading tests, text type of passages, what sort of information to expect in what place, the difficulty of vocabulary or Kanji, types of questions or tasks, and so on, were analyzed. And also, the components of reading ability like bottom-up strategies for processing letters, words, and phrases, as well as top-down, conceptually driven strategies for comprehension, were discussed. Some variables like schemata and background knowledge were also analyzed.
It is concluded that there are explicit differences between two tests in text types, text length, text complexity, difficulty of vocabulary or Kanji, and task types which affect the nature of academic reading. This study suggests that an understanding of the nature of reading is crucial to the development of the assessment instruments, and test developers are expected to design reading tests and assessment procedures adopting a particular theory or model of reading for academic Japanese.
  ITO, Sukero
YOKOTA, Atsuko
FUKUOKA, Rieko
TAKANO, Aiko
  Collaboration   Bulletin of Japanese Language Center for International Students no.35   Japanese Language Center for International Students, TUFS   (no.35),pp.p.31   2009/03