Content Validity of Class Twelve Optional English Tests

Abstract

This research entitled Content Validity of Class Twelve Optional English Tests is an attempt to examine the content validity of the test papers in terms of text content Coverage and content weighting in relevance with its objectives. For this purpose, The researcher has analyzed three test papers 2066 to 2068 of optional English of class twelve. He has used only secondary sources of data; they were three test papers of class twelve optional English and the text book prescribed for optional English viz. The Great Gatsby, Generations, Encounters and Plays in One Act, as well as optional English class twelve syllabus. The researcher also consulted book, Thesis, Articles, Journals etc related to the research work in order to facilitate the study. He has prepared a checklist as tools for data collection. After that he matched the contents of curriculum with the checklist. He also sorted out questions on different content areas and collected them on the basis of coverage. The major finding of this research work is that optional English tests do not have high content validity in term of text content coverage and weighting representation in relevance with its objectives.

This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter one deals with the introduction that consists of general background, Significance of the Study, Objectives of the Study, An Introduction to the Optional English of 10+2 level, Syllabus of Optional English at Grade Twelve, Literature Review, Content Validity, Validity, Economy, Administrability, Scorability, Reliability, Quality of Good Test, An Introduction of Higher Secondary Education Board, Language Testing, The Historical Background of Teaching English in Nepal. Chapter two introduces methodology which comprises of Sources of Data, Sampling, Limitation of the Study, Tools of Data Collection, The Process of Data Collection. Chapter three is devoted to the interpretation and analysis of the data collection. The data have been analyzed and interpreted in terns of the variables identified in the objectives of the study. Chapter four consists of findings and recommendations of the study. The findings have been outlined on the basis of the analysis and interpretation of the data and appropriate recommendations and pedagogical implications have been made.