Gender Matters: A Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment Approach to Differential Item Functioning and Differential Attribute Functioning in a High-Stakes EFL Reading Comprehension Test

Despite the general consensus attributing an advantage to female readers, there are indications of their unsatisfactory performance on some reading tests. Adopting a cognitive approach, this article attempts to determine the underlying skills/attributes of and possible gender-based differences in a high-stakes nationwide English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension test. Through two study phases, we utilized more recent, rigorous methodologies/frameworks of Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment (CDA) to scrutinize the existence of any gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) and/or differential attribute functioning (DAF) under the generalized deterministic input, noisy “and” gate (G-DINA) model. After our panel of expert applied linguists confirmed the existence of six reading attributes, the empirical evidence indicated that the Q-matrix is valid for the item response data of the EFL reading comprehension test. The results of the tests also showed that three test items and two attributes (i.e. sub-skills) of the reading comprehension test have large DIF and DAF against female examinees. The study discusses and concludes with the implications of the findings (including application of CDA and DIF/DAF methodology) for the teaching, testing, and researching of reading skills in general and high-stakes EFL reading examinations in particular.