Investigating the construct measured by banked gap-fill items : evidence from eye-tracking

McCray, Gareth and Brunfaut, Tineke (2018) Investigating the construct measured by banked gap-fill items : evidence from eye-tracking. Language Testing, 35 (1). pp. 51-73. ISSN 0265-5322

[thumbnail of Banked_gap_fill_items_AUTHOR_ACCEPTED_MANUSCRIPT]
Preview
PDF (Banked_gap_fill_items_AUTHOR_ACCEPTED_MANUSCRIPT)
Banked_gap_fill_items_AUTHOR_ACCEPTED_MANUSCRIPT.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (612kB)
[thumbnail of McCray&Brunfaut2018]
Preview
PDF (McCray&Brunfaut2018)
McCray_Brunfaut2018.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (482kB)

Abstract

This study investigates test-takers’ processing while completing banked gap-fill tasks, designed to test reading proficiency, in order to test theoretically based expectations about the variation in cognitive processes of test-takers across levels of performance. Twenty-eight test-takers’ eye traces on 24 banked gap-fill items (on six tasks) were analysed according to seven on-line eye-tracking measures representing overall, text and task processing. Variation in processing was related to test-takers’ level of performance on the tasks overall. In particular, as hypothesised, lower-scoring students exerted more cognitive effort on local reading and lower-level cognitive processing in contrast to test-takers who attained higher scores. The findings of different cognitive processes associated with variation in scores illuminate the construct measured by banked gap-fill items, and therefore have implications for test design and the validity of score interpretations.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Language Testing
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3310
Subjects:
?? testing readingeye trackingbanked gap-fillclozecognitive processinglinguistics and languagesocial sciences (miscellaneous) ??
ID Code:
82110
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Oct 2016 08:52
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 00:44