Abstract
This study investigated the effects of different numbers of options (four-option vs. three-option) on different listening tasks (picture vs. dialogue vs. monologue). The data were collected from 118 Japanese university students and were analyzed from the perspective of item difficulty, discrimination, reliability, and distractor performance. The results indicate that the number of options had no notable impact on item difficulty in picture and dialogue tasks, but had a significant effect in the monologue task. The results also suggest that the number of options had no great impact on item discrimination and reliability in all tasks, and that the number of items containing all discriminating distractors was different between the three tasks. The overall findings provide evidence that task difference is an important element in the study of optimal number of options and the development of multiple-choice listening tests.
