ERIC Number: ED243307
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1984-Mar
Pages: 18
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Using Tests of Anaphoric Reference in ESL Reading.
Parish, Charles; Perkins, Kyle
This study investigates the extent to which beginning to advanced students of English as a second language (ESL) understand antecedent/anaphora relationships in written discourse. The findings are related to previous research on anaphoric reference in first and second language contexts, emphasizing the significance of this factor in measurement of language acquisition. The instruments used for elicitation were two Tests of Anaphoric Reference-Multiple Choice and two Tests of Anaphoric Reference-Cloze Format. Subjects were 50 full-time college-level ESL students with eight different native languages. Five factors of comprehension of anaphoric reference were studied: (1) the relevance of students' proficiency levels on test performance, (2) recognition versus production performance, (3) the effect of numbers of antecedents, (4) the effect of types of pronouns tested, and (5) the effects of the distance between anaphora and antecedent. Results indicate that for three of the four separate tests used, proficiency level was a significant factor; production was more difficult than recognition; the number of antecedents did not affect pronoun assignment; a significant difference in performance was found on the cloze tests but not on the multiple choice tests for three types of pronoun; and distance between anaphora and antecedent made a difference with cloze tests but not multiple choice tests. (MSE)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (18th, Houston, TX, March 6-11, 1984).