English teachers in Asia and elsewhere who train students for qualifying examinations like the University of Cambridge ‘O’ Level examinations need to have an in-depth understanding of how these gate-keeping tests evaluate candidates’ skills in order to train their students to perform well in these examinations as well as design effective practice papers. This workshop will present the findings of a doctoral research study that investigated the typical textual features that were most frequently targeted in reading comprehension questions of the Cambridge University ‘O’ Level English Paper 2. A taxonomy of the top twenty textual features was built through a linguistic analysis of past years’ ‘O’ Level English Paper 2 comprising a database of 338 questions and their accompanying texts, which identified and described the range of typical textual features that were typically targeted as objects of interpretation in reading comprehension questions. This workshop session will begin with a presentation of the taxonomy of textual features as well as a reciprocal framework of question structure in the UCLES Paper that teachers can use as resource for test design. Participants will then explore applications of the frameworks to the selection of suitable texts, identification of  critical textual features to target for evaluation as well as design suitable questions. Since professional test writers target textual features that they consider critical to reading competency, this workshop will be relevant to anyone who teaches reading comprehension skills.

AIM:

To raise participants’ awareness of the  typical textual features that Cambridge examiners target as objects of interpretation and consequently improve their ability to select suitable texts that match the linguistic complexity of ‘O’ Level passages for testing and teaching. In addition, this workshop will also   improve their targeting strategy when deciding which textual feature to select for evaluation in the comprehension questions they design.

     PROGRAMME OUTLINE:

1. Presentation of taxonomy of the top 20 textual features.
   
2. Participants’ practice analysis on sample texts, presentation and discussion.
3. Presentation of suitable textual targets and questions.
4.  Pedagogical implications.