The effect of the language of assessment on efl jordanian students' reading comprehension

Abstract EN

This study aimed at investigating the influence of the language of two testing/assessment methods on Jordanian EFL students’ reading comprehension.

More specifically, it attempted to answer the following question : 1.

What is the effect of the language of the test (LT) on students’ reading comprehension in EFL when they were tested / assessed by IWRP and MC? The sample of the study consisted of 287 eleventh-grade school students chosen randomly in the city of Irbid in Jordan.

Two types of assessing reading comprehension were used in the study (immediate written recall protocol (IWRP) and multiple choice (MC).

Two authentic English texts were used to assess students’ reading comprehension.

Approximately, half of the students (n = 140) were tested in reading comprehension by IWRP, and the other half (n = 147) were tested by MC.

One half of each group were asked to respond in their native language (Arabic) and the other half were asked to respond in the target language (English).

The results revealed that the language of the testing method has a significant effect on reading comprehension in favor of Arabic.

Implications and recommendations for further research are drawn and presented.