On the relationship between grammar knowledge and FCE-TOEFL reading comprehension tests

On the relationship between grammar knowledge and FCE-TOEFL reading comprehension tests

Sayyed Mohammad ALAVI (PhD)
Assistant Professor
English Department,
University of Tehran.

Abstract

This paper investigated the performances of female and male subjects (N=2059) with various educational backgrounds on different sections of a proficiency test, i. e. grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The main purpose of this investigation was to identify the more related variable in the test to reading comprehension tests developed in the First Certificate English (FCE) and in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) formats.

The results of this study revealed that the more related variable to TOEFL was the Written Expression items whereas the more related variable to FCE items were the TOEFL items. The statistical analyses of the data demonstrated that (a)the subjects performed significantly different on various parts of the test, (b)the performances of subjects ...