Comparative Analysis of Multi-Strategic Assessment Predictors in Reading Comprehension: A case Study of Pakistani Advanced EFL learners

Abstract

The inevitability of assessment in reading comprehension revitalizes English language instructions. The enhanced performance of Pakistani EFL graduate learners in reading comprehension is an ample indicator of their potential in synthesizing, evaluating and analyzing the text-oriented information. This study intends to (comparatively) diagnose the required potential of EFL students in processing inferential and general information through short and long texts by employing multi-strategic reading comprehension assessment modes. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of text passage questions, cloze tests and inferential questions surface a gap in the performance of Pakistani EFL students. The analysis of the data shows that general multiple short text questions result in better understanding of the text but inferential mode rendered considerable impediment for learners. The assessment is sought under Blooms taxonomy by applying four questionnaires as research tools. This research intends to detect the main difficulties and the obstacles that hamper students’ text comprehension by visualizing higher level of questioning that results in developing higher order of thinking.