Pengertian Multiple-Choice Items: General

Multiple-Choice Items: General

It is useful at this stage to consider multiple-choice items in some detail, as they are undoubtedly one of the most widely used types of items in objective tests. However, it must be emphasized at the outset that the usefulness of this type of item is limited. Unfortunately, multiple-choice testing has proliferated as a result of attempts to use multiple-choice items to perform task for which they were never intended. Moreover, since the multiple-choice item is one of the most difficult and time consuming types of items to construct, numerous poor multiple-choice tests now abound. Indeed the lack of time required to construct good multiple-choice items could often have been better spent by teachers on other more useful tasks connected with teaching or testing.

The chief criticism of multiple-choice item, however, is that frequently it does not lend itself to the testing of language as a communication. In the process involved in the actual selection of one out of four or five options bears little relation to the way language is used in most real life situations. Appropriate responses to various stimuli in everyday situations are produced rather than chosen from several options.

Nevertheless, multiple-choice items can provide a useful means of teaching and testing in various learning situations (particularly at the lower levels) provided that it is always recognized that such items test knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, etc. rather than the ability to use language. Although they rarely measure communication as such, they can prove useful in measuring students’ ability to recognize correct grammatical forms, etc. and to make important discriminations in the target language. In doing this, multiple-choice items can help both student and teacher to identify areas of difficulty.

Furthermore, multiple-choice items offer a useful introduction to the construction of objective tests. Only through an appreciation and mastery of the techniques of multiple-choice item writing is the would be test constructor fully able to recognise the limitations imposed by such items and then employ other more appropriate techniques of testing for certain purposes.

The optimum number of alternatives, or options, for its multiple-choice item is five in most public tests. Although a larger number, say seven, would reduce even further the element of chance, it is extremely difficult and often impossible to construct as many as seven good options. Indeed, since it is often very difficult to construct items with even five options, four options are recommended for most classroom tests. Many writers recommend using four options for grammar items, but five for vocabulary and reading.

Before constructing any test items, the test writer must first determine the actual areas to be covered by multiple-choice items and the number of items to be included in the test. The test must be long enough to' allow for a reliable assessment of a tester's performance and short enough to be practicable. Too long a test is undesirable because of the administration difficulties often created and because of the mental strain and tension which may be caused among the students taking the test. The number of items included in a test will vary according to the level of difficulty, the nature of the areas being tested, and the purpose of the test. The teacher's own experience will generally determine the length of a test for classroom use, while the length of a public test will be affected by various factors, not least of which will be its reliability measured statistically from the results of the trial test.

Note that context is of the utmost importance in all tests. Decontextualised multiple-choice items can do considerable harm by conveying the impression that language can be learnt and used free of any context. Both linguistic context and situational context are essential in using language. Isolated sentences in a multiple-choice test simply add to the artificiality of the test situation and give rise to ambiguity and confusion. An awareness of the use of language in an appropriate and meaningful way – so essential a part of any kind of communication – then becomes irrelevant in the test. Consequently, it is important to remember that the following multiple-choice items are presented out of context here simply in order to save space and to draw attention to the salient points being made.

The initial part of each multiple-choice item is known as the stem; the choices from which the students select their answers are referred to as options/ response/ alternatives. One option is the answer, correct option or key, while the other options are distractors. The task of a distractor is to distract the majority of poor students (i.e. those who do not know the answer) from the correct option.

Stay here until Mr. Short........ you to come. = stem

A.         told                                options/

B.          will tell               = responses/                                      = distractors

C.          is telling                alternatives

D.         tells                                                                                            = answer/correct option/key

The following general principles should be observed when multiple-choice items are constructed:

1. Each multiple-choice item should have only one answer. This answer must be absolutely correct unless the instruction specifies choosing the best option (as in some vocabulary tests). Although this may seem an easy matter, it is sometimes extremely difficult to construct an item having only one correct answer. An example of an item with two answers is:

‘ I stayed there until John…’

A.    had come           C. came

B.    would come       D. has come

2. Only one feature at a time should be tested: it is usually less confusing for the testees and it helps to reinforce a particular teaching point. Obviously, few would wish to test both grammar and vocabulary at the same time, but sometimes word order and sequence of tenses are tested simultaneously. Such items are called impure items:

I never knew where..........

A.      had the boys gone                                 C. have the boys gone

B.    the boys have gone                                D. the boys had gone

(Note that it may sometimes be necessary to construct such impure items at the very elementary levels because of the severely limited number of distractors generally available.)

3.  Each option should be grammatically correct when placed in the stem, except of course in the case of specific grammar test items. For example, stems ending with the determiner a, followed by options in the form of nouns or noun phrases, sometimes trap the unwary test constructor. In the item below, the correct answer C, when moved up to complete the stem, makes the sentence grammatically incorrect:

Someone who designs houses is a ........

A. designer           B. builder        C. architect       D. plumber

The item can be easily recast as follows:

Someone who designs houses is .......

A. a designer        B. a builder              C. an architect    D. a plumber

Stems ending in are, were, etc. may have the same weaknesses as the following and will require complete rewriting:

The boy's hobbies referred to in the first paragraph of the passage were

A.    camping and fishing

B.    tennis and golf

C.    cycling long distances

D.    fishing, rowing and swimming

E.     collecting stamps

Any fairly intelligent student would soon be aware that options C and E were obviously not in the tester's mind when first constructing the item above because they are ungrammatical answers. Such a student would, therefore, realise that they had been added later simply as distractors.

Stems ending in prepositions may also create certain difficulties. In the following reading comprehension item, option C can be ruled out immediately:

John soon returned to...........

A. work         B. the prison           C. home           D. school

4.  All multiple-choice items should be at a level appropriate to the proficiency level of the testees. The context, itself, should be at a lower level than the actual problem which the item is testing: a grammar test item should not contain other grammatical features as difficult as the area being tested, and a vocabulary item should not contain more difficult semantic features in the stem than the area being tested.

5.  Multiple-choice items should be as brief and as clear as possible (though it is desirable to provide short contexts for grammar items).

6.  In many tests, items are arranged in rough order of increasing difficulty. It is generally considered important to have one or two simple items to 'lead in' the testees, especially if they are not too familiar with the kind of test being administered. Nevertheless, areas of language which are trivial
and not worth testing should be excluded from the test.