This study aimed to adopted the PISA reading literacy framework to investigate the structures of reading tasks on the English Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students (BCTEST) and to analyze the examinees’ performances on different reading texts and processes from 2001 to 2009 administrations. Major findings were as follows. In terms of the distributions of text format, the percentages for continuous, non-continuous and mixed texts respectively were 72.6%, 22.1% and 5.3%. Among continuous texts, the most frequent categories were narration, conversation and description, with a total around 85%. Among non-continuous texts, the most frequent categories were information sheets and advertisements, with a total around 70%. As for item cognitive processes, the most frequent category for typical reading tasks was retrieving information (75%). For cloze reading tasks, the percentages for reading comprehension and verb tense items respectively were about 50%. In terms of examinees’ performances, there were no significant differences among the performances on different reading text formats; however, there were significant differences for the performances on different processes. As for the performances of different achievement level examinees, the average items passing rates for high achieving (top 25%), average (middle 50%) and low achieving students (bottom 25%) respectively were .96, .70 and .28. Besides, the results showed that large achievement gaps were found among different achieving examinees without exceptions. Implications based on the findings of this study were proposed for test developers, educators, researchers, and policy makers.
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Structures and Examinees’ Performances of the Reading Tasks on the English Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students
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