The Function of Length of Passages in Reading Comprehension Tests: high-achievers vs. low-achievers

This study investigated the effects of length of passage on reading comprehension of EFL high school students. Four reading comprehension texts from Preliminary English Test (PET) accompanied by ۲۰ multiple-choice items were utilized to achieve the purposes of the research. In this study, it was necessary to use two forms of tests, the original form as the long-form and the shortened form in which passages were shortened to two-thirds of their original lengths. The participants were ۱۳۵ Iranian male students (ages ۱۵-۱۷) from one high school. They have studied English for six years, and they were at an intermediate level of English language proficiency. All the students took the two forms of the test with an interval of two weeks. Analysis of data through paired sample t-test indicated that length of the text had a statistically significant effect on students' performance on the two forms of the test, and participants performed better on the shortened passages. Further analysis of data through quantile regression also confirmed that there was a difference between the performances of students in short-form and long-form tests in all deciles, but this difference was more significant when the performances of high and low achievers were considered.

کلیدواژه ها:

Text length ، Original Text ، Shortened Text ، Reading Comprehension ، EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Learners