چکیده:
Multiple Choice tests are utilized widely in educational assessment because of their objectivity, ease of scoring, and reliability. This study aimed to compare IF and ID of MC vocabulary test items and attempted to find whether these indices are affected by the number of options. To this end, four 20 item stem equivalent vocabulary tests (3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-option MC) were administered to 194 (106 male and 88 female) pre-intermediate students. Besides, an attitude questionnaire was utilized to examine the attitudes of test takers towards MC test format. Results of one-way ANOVA showed that altering number of options in MC tests does not affect Item Discrimination (ID); however, there were significant differences between Item Facility (IF) of 3-, 5-, and 6-option and 4-, 5-, and 6-option MC test but not between 3- and 4-option MC test, suggesting that 6-option test is the most difficult test. Also, the results of questionnaire revealed test takers’ preference towards the use of 3-option MC. Findings demonstrated that increasing the number of options makes a test more difficult and that choosing the right number of option for MC tests is controversial. Testers are recommended to consider various factors while choosing the right number of options.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"An examination of test- taker preferences* Karim Sadeghi** Associate Professor, English Language Department, Urmia University (Corresponding author) Ghazal Akhavan Masoumi MA in TEFL, English Language Department, Urmia University Abstract Multiple Choice tests are utilized widely in educational assessment because of their objectivity, ease of scoring, and reliability.
Following Rodriguez, Shizuka, Takeuchi, Yashima, and Yoshizawa (2006) studied the effect of the number of options on psychometric characteristics in an English reading test in a Japanese EFL university entrance examination.
Results of the study suggested that there were few differences between 3- and 4-option MC tests with regard to item difficulty and mean test score.
One of the reasons that test takers perform poorly in 5- and 6-option MC items may be due to some construct irrelevant factors such as test anxiety (Lee & Winke, 2013).
Most of the prior studies on the optimal number of options suggested using 3-option MC items (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005; Rogers & Harley, 1999; Tarrant & Ware, 2010; Vyas & Supe, 2008), because it offers different benefits for teachers and testers.
, 2009); second, with fewer options, more items can be added to tests and it enables the tester to increase the sampling content while keeping testing time constant (Tarrant & Ware, 2010).
Based on the findings of the current study, it seems that 3-option MC test seems cost-effective, since there are no differences in ID between 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-option MC items, and taking into account the difficulty of writing 4 or 5 plausible distractors, it would be beneficial to use MC tests with fewer options."