18 the learners, 4 some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through
a story line or episode, 5 task represent, or closely approximate, real-world task.
2. Testing Reading
Harris 1969: 58-64 states that readings are generally built around the grammatical structures and lexical items which the student will need to
communicate orally, and the content of the material is regarded as relatively unimportant.
a. General Form of the Reading Test
Generally Reading test consists of a number of short passages of varying styles and content, each followed by a series of multiple choice comprehension
items. By a careful selection of passages, the test writer will be able to test the examinee’s understanding not only the surface meaning of a passage but also of
the author’s purpose, attitude, and method. Thus, the reading comprehension is somewhat similar with advance-level listening comprehension test in which the
students are given rather long oral language, perhaps in the form of dialogues, from which he must examine and interpret a multiplicity of phonological,
grammatical, and lexical occurring simultaneously.
b. Selection of the Test Passages
1 Length Individual test passages should be kept brief. Passage of between 100 and
250 words are the proper length.
19 2 Subject Matter
The selection should reflect the various kinds of reading material assigned in the school courses. For these the test writer may draw up on such works as
biographies, prose fiction, encyclopedia entries, and non technical on the natural and social sciences.
3 Style and Treatment of Subject Reading tests should generally include various types and styles. However,
all should possess reasonable sense as a piece of writing. The paragraphs in a reading test should a deal chronologically with series of events, b compare or
contrast two or more people, objects or events, c present an author‘s individualistic opinion on a familiar subject.
4 Language The test writer must always set realistic tasks for his test population, which
consists of a second or foreign language. Therefore, overloaded passages with extremely difficult lexical items andor complex structure may have to be adapted.
However, the simplification of reading passages must be carefully controlled so that the test is made so easy that it fails to discriminate between students on
various level of proficiency.
c. Advice on Item Writing
