Learning Strategies as Bias Factors in Language Test Performance: A Study

چکیده مقاله

The present study investigated the EFL students’ learning strategies as bias factors in their
performances on the English grammar and reading comprehension tests. To this end, 158 intermediate
EFL learners were selected from among 324 language learners of a private language institute in Urmia
(Iran) as the participants of the study based on their results on a proficiency test. Second, the selected
participants respectively received: Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL),
the grammar test of the study, and the reading comprehension test of the study for the assessment of
their learning strategies, English grammar test performance, and English reading comprehension test
performance during 3 sessions in a 10-day period. The standard multiple regression was employed for
data analysis. The results showed that, the learners’ cognitive strategies had a significant positive
correlation with their grammar test results. Moreover, there were significant positive correlations
between the learners’ metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies and their performance on the
reading comprehension test. Based on these results, it was argued that, the learners’ learning strategies
significantly contributed to the explanation of their test performance and may be regarded to be
systematic sources of test bias. The results of the present study may have useful practical implications
for the EFL teachers and syllabus designers. Moreover, these results may provide certain theoretical
guidelines for second language testing specialists.