2007 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 3-13
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of item stem preview and/or answer option preview of multiple-choice listening comprehension tests on item difficulty and item discrimination. Three different item formats of MCQ listening comprehension test were addressed in the present study: (1)both preview (printed item stems and answer options provided prior to listening) (2)answer option preview (printed answer options provided prior to listening: printed item stems after listening) (3)item-stem preview format (printed item stems provided prior to listening; printed answer options after listening). Item format was referred as stems and/or option preview in this study.
The result of the experiments revealed that item format of MCQ listening comprehension tests affects item difficulty. The mean score of the format (2)was found significantly lower than that of the format (1)or(3). This was primarily be attributed to the nine items on the format (2), which showed higher item difficulties than on the other two formats. No significant difference was found in item discrimination power across the three formats.
