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Test-taking strategies on a multiple-choice test of reading comprehension

A review of the literature on language testing suggests that examiners’ assumptions concerning what they are testing often do not coincide with the actual processes undergone by the respondent when taking the test. This paper reports on research whose purpose was to study the processing of reading comprehension tests in the first language as compared to the target language, and to ascertain the cognitive strategies used by the respondents when taking the test. The research called upon mentalistic measures, both in the form of immediate introspective verbal report after answering each item, as well as retrospective report. Forty-two tenth-grade students of French, whose first language is Hebrew, took a multiple-choice reading comprehension test given in both languages. The study focused on five central questions: (1) Is it possible to obtain feedback from respondents about their strategy use on an item-by-item basis? (2) How frequently do strategies used in taking a first-language and target-language multiple-choice reading comprehension test contribute to correct responses as opposed to incorrect ones? (3) To what extent is there transfer of contributory and non-contributory strategies from first language to the target language in taking the test? (4) Does the stimulus format of the test