a critical analysis of reading passages of TOEFL test

Critical analysis of the content of TOEFL reading passages (critical language testing) According to Shohamy (1998) the power of test is an important issue that must be introduced as a critical language testing in the literature. Language tests have a long history as a social practice, but the social and political functions of test are neglected in language testing as a research field. For a long time language tester s deal only with measurement issues while ignoring the social and political dimensions of tests (Schamy, 1998). This study aims at providing insightful information about the content of reading passages of TOEFL test. The content of them were scrutinized from the Lenz of social issues such as human rights and environmental issues. The data in this study were selected from the reading passages of TOEFL exam that published by ETS from 2003 to 2010. This study investigates the whole content of 60 recent TOEFL reading passages that endorsed by ETS. The reading passages of seven recent years were chosen. The frequency of each topic calculated and the result was reported in this term. In the other word, a variety of different topics were designed to test the ability to comprehend academic reading materials. All field of study from chemistry to literature to psychology were possible topics of the reading passages. The subject of passages that was more frequent than other topics were natural science, social science, business, and the arts. Reading passages that were published in recent years show the concern of environmental issues more than before. In comparison with environmental issues, the topic of human right was neglected in the examined passages. We also need to keep in mind that the role of United States in developing economical and industrial situation especially after World War II was intentionally highlighted in reading passages. Key words: critical language testing, TOEFL test

Keywords:

critical language testing , TOEFL test