Familiar and Unfamiliar Topics’ Effect on Readers: Test-Taking Strategies for TOEFL iBT Reading Comprehension Questions

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Language Instruction and Assessment

Abstract

This study compares the reading strategies of 20 Chinese-speaking students at the University of Iowa when confronted with familiar versus unfamiliar topics on a multiple-choice format reading test, such as the TOEFL iBT reading comprehension exam. The study focuses on what students do when they take reading tests by asking them to verbalize their thoughts. This study further examines if test-taking strategies are influenced by students’ scores on these reading tests. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are adopted in this study. Given that Chinese-speaking students are the most frequent among all international students, the investigation of how 1) topic familiarity and 2) test scores correlate with students’ strategy use could have far-reaching implications for both language educators and test-takers.

Author

• Jia-Ying Lee, the University of Iowa