خلاصة:
The C-test is widely known as a test of overall language proficiency. Most of the evidence in this regard has been obtained through correlational studies. Nonetheless, construct validity of the C-test is just partially established. Moreover, such studies do not reveal anything about the mental processes going on in the mind of the testees. Verbal protocol analysis has been recommended as an important tool to validate the C-test. A C-test consisting of 5 texts with WO deletions was given to a sample of 26 Iranian English seniors, and subsequently a retrospective verbal protocol analysis was carried out to learn what happened in the mind of the testees while they were restoring the test items. The results of the study showed that the subjects used 13 different strategies, consisting of both bottom-up and top-down processes. However, the use of different strategies varied as a function of both the types of items in the C-test as well as the proficiency level of the subjects. The results of the study suggest construct validity of the C-test as a test of overall language proficiency
ملخص الجهاز:
A C-test consisting of 5 texts with WO deletions was given to a sample of 26 Iranian English seniors, and subsequently a retrospective verbal protocol analysis was carried out to learn what happened in the mind of the testees while they were restoring the test items.
However, the use of different strategies varied as a function of both the types of items in the C-test as well as the proficiency level of the subjects.
The results of many studies have lent support to the validity of doze as a measure of overall language proficiency by establishing high correlation between the scores of the subjects on this test and those obtained from discrete-point proficiency tests such as TOLFL and UCLA placement test (Chappelle and Abraham, 1990; 011er 1988; Alderson, 1979, 1980; Darnell, 1968 to name a few).
These researchers enumerate some of the strategies used by the subjects as follows: recall by structural analysis, by adding letters/syllables to the item beginning, by repetition, by search for meaning, by looking for external help, by substitution, and recall of past situations.
For instance, in the case of "the grass of " a subject said, "I 66 A Verbal Protocol Analysis of a C-Test wrote the word Africa because the word starts with a capital letter.
UAL, Vol. 8, No. 2, September 2005 79 It was also noticed that the type and the percentage of the strategies used by the subjects with different proficiency levels on the whole test as well as individual texts were, to some extent, different.