French Reading Comprehension Assessment Tool for Non-French Major Undergraduates in a Public University in China

Yang Lei, Lin Siew Eng

Abstract


This study aims to develop an educational assessment tool to assess the French reading comprehension ability of non-French major undergraduates at a public university in China. The assessment tool was developed based on Barrett's taxonomy to determine where the undergraduates are and where they should be in their French reading ability.  A set of French reading comprehension descriptors was also designed to inform the specific reading ability for the different performance bands. A mixed-method approach was employed for data collection, utilising both quantitative and qualitative instruments. A total of 179 non-French-major undergraduates participated in a pilot study to provide data for calibrating the assessment tool. Subsequently, 183 participants were assessed for reading comprehension in French using the developed tool. The assessment results provided a clear picture of the participants' French reading comprehension and their performance in answering the different types of reading questions. In addition, eight participants selected from the different performance bands were interviewed to gather their feedback to identify areas of improvement for refining the assessment tool. The feedback included respondents' experiences and challenges faced during the test. The results from the study demonstrated that the developed assessment tool can benefit the non-French-major undergraduates in higher education as well as effectively provide teachers teaching French with the information that they need to know about the undergraduates French reading ability to prepare their teaching instruction.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.24.1.9


Keywords


Barrett`s Taxonomy, descriptors, education, educational assessment tool, French reading comprehension

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References


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