Difficulty-based task items sequencing and task-based test performance

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1、2011InternationalConferenceonLanguages,LiteratureandLinguisticsIPEDRvol.26(2011)©(2011)IACSITPress,SingaporeTASK-BASEDLANGUAGEASSESSMENT:Difficulty-basedtaskitemssequencingandTask-basedTestPerformance1ShadabJabbarpoorIslamicAzadUniversity,GarmsarBranch,IranAbstract.Task-basedassessmen

2、tcanbedefinedasanapproachthatattemptstoassessasdirectlyaspossiblewhethertesttakersareabletoperformspecifictargetlanguagetasksinparticularcommunicativesettings.Whenitcomestotask-basedtestingthecrucialfactortobeconsideredwouldbetaskitemsequencing(whichitemcomesfirst).Intheliteratureofla

3、nguagetestingitisassumedthatitemsshouldbesequencedfromeasiesttothemostdifficult.Inthisstudytheresearcherintendedtofindoutwhethersequencingtasksonthebasisoftaskdifficulty(determinedbythescopeoftheoutcome)fromeasiest(closeendedtasks)tothemostdifficult(open-endedtasks)improvestestees’per

4、formanceonthosetasks.Tothisendsherandomlyselectedtwohomogenousgroupsofsubjectsandassignedthemintoexperimentalandcontrolgroups.Inonegroupthetaskitemsweresequencedfromeasiesttothemostdifficultandintheexperimentalgroupthissequencewasreversed.Dataanalysisrevealedthatsequencingthetasksfrom

5、easytodifficultdoesnotsignificantlyimprovetestees’performance.Thisstudyhasimplicationsfortestdesignersaswellaslanguagematerialsdeveloperswhointendtomaketask-basedlanguageteachingandtestingmostpractical.Keywords:task,languageassessment1.IntroductionInthelasttwodecades,L2instructionhasb

6、ecomemorecommunicativewithgreateremphasisplacedonstudents’abilitytousetheL2inreal-lifesituations.Task-basedinstructionisoneincreasinglypopularapproachtocommunicativelanguagelearning.TaskshavegainedsupportintheL2teachingcommunitybecausetheyhaveoftenbeenseenprincipallyasdevicestoallowle

7、arnerstopracticeusingthelanguageasatoolofcommunicationratherthanasadevicetogetlearnerstofocusongrammaticalfeaturesofthelanguage.Averyimportantassumptionintask-basedlearning,asstatedbySkehan(1998),isthatthisfocusonmeaningwillengagenaturalisticacquisitionalmechanisms,causetheunderlyingi

8、nterl