The notion of subskills in reading comprehension tests: an EAP example

It has been suggested that reading ability can be divided into various subskills, and this notion is common in ESL teaching and testing. It has, however, also been argued (Alderson and Lukmani, 1989) that teachers are unable to reach agreement about the reading subskills which may be tested by particular reading test items. This study begins by examining the place of subskills in ESL syllabus and test design, with particular attention to the enduring influence of the work of Munby (1978). The issue of teachers' perceptions of subskills and their difficulty, as represented in reading comprehension tests, is discussed. A framework is put forward for negotiat ing agreement between teachers about subskills tested by reading compre hension test items. Using this framework, very substantial agreement between a group of five experienced teachers of EAP is shown to be achieved in matching subskills to individual test items in the reading section of a test of EAP, as well as in judging the difficulty of these subskills. After brief discussion of the use of Rasch IRT in analysis of reading comprehension test items, the teachers' consensus regarding subskill difficulty level is compared to the Rasch analysis of item difficulty, and the significant correlation found gives some empirical validation to the teachers' perceptions. Implications of the findings for analysis of test content, and for teaching, are considered.