Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of English Language Test Items in Japanese University Entrance Examinations

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As the preliminary to the whole research project, an analytical framework was developed for test item specification. This framework specifies characteristics of an item in two main aspects, i.e. task types and response types, and also details its other features such as rubrics and the skill(s) being tested. Furthermore, for the multiple-choice questions, the response type is further analyzed in terms of choices and the number (and order) of choices to an item. In developing this framework, we collected 2,944 English test items from entrance examinations of 109 randomly-selected Japanese universities and also from three versions of the National Center Test, an achievement test developed and administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations. These test items were used to determine the applicability of our framework. Since we found a wider than expected variety of task types and response types, necessary modifications were made so that the framework would be applica … More ble in the Japanese EFL context. Employing this revised framework, the same set of items were analyzed, yielding a prototypical database of English test items in university entrance examinations in Japan. This database reveals some general tendencies. For instance, despite a recent shift to more communicative language teaching, a "skills and components" model of language tests is clearly still dominant in university entrance examinations. In addition, although it would be desirable to make use of the wider variety of task types which are available, conventional varieties are still being used in the testing of reading and writing skills.Simultaneously, another test item database, viz. the database of the National Center Test items with statistical information fully provided, was employed to elucidate (i) qualitative characteristics of items which displayed unique statistical tendencies, and, by IRT-based equating of different versions of the National Center Test, (ii) changes in academic achievements of Japanese EFL learners at the time of university admission. Less