Test results are often used to make major decisions whether for educational or research
purposes. But what intervening factors affect the reliability and validity of the tests? And
how can we design better tests? This book draws on a theoretical framework from research in
reading and language testing and investigates the results of a set of reading comprehension
tests that were delivered to 750 Japanese university students. Its objective is to improve the
quality of language tests by addressing the following questions: - How do different kinds of
text organisation affect students' performance? - What are the effects of different response
formats such as summary writing and open-ended questions? - What can examiners do to ensure
that test results provide a more accurate measure of learners' language abilities? This book
aims to make the full set of the author's research findings available for the first time.
