چكيده
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the existence of two relationships, one between
the item format (multiple-choice, short answer questions, gap filling, information transfer
tasks, true/false) and EFL learners’ listening comprehension test performance at the
intermediate level of language proficiency, and the other between text type (monologue
vs. dialogue) and EFL learners’ listening comprehension test performance at the
intermediate level of language proficiency. To fulfill the requirements of this research,
five listening compression tests each with a different item format but the same context
were constructed and pretested. Then the reading and listening sections of PET were
chosen as the criterion measure. Two hundred freshman and sophomore students of
Islamic Azad University of Tehran majoring in English Translation were selected and
divided to ten groups first and then to five pairs. All five pairs were first given the
criterion reading comprehension test. Each pair received a different item format of the
constructed listening tests. After receiving the criterion reading, the first group of each
pair first received the criterion listening then the forty item constructed listening
comprehension test. The second group of each pair after receiving the reading, first
received the forty item constructed listening test, then the criterion listening
comprehension test. Two one way ANOVAs were performed to compare the mean scores
of the five pairs on the criterion reading and listening tests, the results indicated no
significant difference between the mean scores of the five groups on the total criterion
reading and listening comprehension tests. After that an analysis of variance through the
repeated measures was carried out to compare the mean scores of the students on the total
score of the forty item constructed listening comprehension tests. The results of the
univariate tests indicated no significant difference between the mean scores of the five
groups and therefore, there was not any relationship between item format and EFL
learners’ listening comprehension test performance. To test the second null hypothesis,
the participants were sorted out based on their criterion listening comprehension tests, the
highest score in each group was considered to belong to a single person then the average
of the scores of the highest scores to the lowest scores was calculated and the final
product was assumed as a single group. Then two matched t-tests were performed
between the total items in monologue and dialogue text types of the forty item
constructed listening comprehension tests and total monologue and dialogue of the
criterion listening test. The results indicated that participants performed better on the
monologue section of the forty item constructed listening tests and performed better on
the dialogue section of the criterion listening test.
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