Investigating the Role of Test Methods in Testing Reading Comprehension by Jufang Kong

Author:Jufang Kong
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811370212
Publisher: Springer Singapore

7.2.1 Research Procedures

As in the quantitative strand, a pilot study was carried out before the formal data collection was conducted to identify potential problems with TAPs data collection procedures, especially the training of the participants to verbalize their thinking processes. Two volunteers were recruited to take part in the pilot study and fifteen volunteers participated in both phases of the formal data collection.

7.2.2 Pilot Study

After reviewing the relevant literature concerning TAPs theories and practices, the researcher carried out a pilot study half a month prior to the formal data collection. Two senior English major students were recruited to participate in the pilot study individually. Since the purpose of the pilot study was to go through the training session and the data eliciting procedures in the formal data collection to identify potential problems or drawbacks in the procedures if there were any, either of the two participants was required to sit for only one reading comprehension test, Test A or Test B, rather than both tests while doing thinking aloud. The pilot study followed strictly the training session and the data eliciting procedures to be adopted in the formal data collection which will be elaborated later. The senior English major students were recruited instead of the junior ones, i.e., the target participants in the formal data collection, because of convenient sampling.

After the pilot study, a rough idea was formed of how long it would take each participant to complete the whole phase of data collection (TAPs training and taking the test while verbalizing his/her thoughts), which was to be taken into consideration when the researcher made arrangements with the participants in the formal data collection. Either of the participants completed in no more than one hour, therefore, the researcher allotted each of the participants in the formal data collection one hour and a half, considering individual differences and anything unexpected that might happen in the formal data collection. It was also discovered through the pilot study that the participants might vary greatly in their abilities to verbalize their thoughts while taking a test. Some participants might not be suitable for TAPs research tool for they failed to produce useful data related to their thinking processes but read the original prompt texts in the test paper. Therefore, the researcher decided to increase the number of the participants to be recruited in the formal data collection in case a few of them might not be suitable for this research tool no matter how hard they might try.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.