Reliability and Content Validity of a Comprehensive Discourse Completion Test of Interlanguage Pragmatics for Academic Situations

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the reliability and content validity of a comprehensive test of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) developed for the academic situations in the Iranian context. To do so, a meta-analysis of 50 articles which had reported on the tests of ILP was done and the criteria required for the selection of the speech acts of academic situations were developed. Then a Multiple-Choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) of interlanguage pragmatics was developed and validated through native checked situations and items based on meta-pragmatics procedures. Participants of the study were 50 M.A. students majoring in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) studying at Iranian universities as well as 50 native speakers of English.The findings revealed that the test developed enjoyed high internal consistency and content validity. The present findings could contribute to the fields of second language testing and assessment in general and testing interlanguage pragmatics in particular.