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Title:
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Lexical Patterns in the Reading Comprehension Section of the TOEFL(r) Test
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Author:
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Fabiana MacMillan
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Fluminense Federal University
, Applied Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2006
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Applied Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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David Shepherd
Tania Maria Shepherd
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Abstract:
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This thesis argues that lexical patterns may be observed connecting
question stems and/or correct options to relevant portions of the passages
in question in fixed-response reading comprehension questions on the TOEFL®
test. Results stemming from the lexical cohesive analysis of a corpus of
608 TOEFL® practice reading comprehension test items suggest that these
patterns are, more often than not, realized by specific categories of
lexical repetition, or lexical links (Hoey, 1991) according to question type.
Equivalent results found for TOEFL ® PBT, CBT, and iBT items appear to
indicate that the patterns are in evidence across different versions of the
test, even though these may, in certain instances, test the same reading
skills by means of different question types.
Finally, based on the results of an additional analysis of the level of
difficulty of the same test items, it is claimed that the lexical patterns
associated with the different question types in the corpus have a bearing
on the general range of difficulty of the latter in terms of the ‘type of
match variable’ (Jamieson, 2000).
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