Felipe, A. and Villanueva, J. de D. (2018). Design and validation of a pilot test to assess
university students’ reading competence, Investigaciones Sobre Lectura, 10, 95-117.
Number 10
2018 December
Design and validation of a pilot test to assess
university students’ reading competence
Andrea Felipe
Morales
Universidad de Málaga
Juan de Dios Villanueva Roa
Universidad de Granada
Pag. 95 to 117
Keywords
Reading, reading test
university students
Abstract:
This
paper
presents
a
pilot
test
designed
to
assess
university
students’ reading competence. As yet
there
is

no

validated

test

of

reading
competence
in
Spanish
for
this
population. After a brief introduction
to
the
theoretical
framework
underlying
this
test

Reading
Competence
Test
for
University
Students (Felipe, Barrios, Villanueva
y Caldevilla)–, the test is des-cribed.
It
consists

of

12

texts:

9

of

them
authentic
texts

and

the

remaining
three were written for the purpose of
the
test.

These

texts

were

selected
according to the text types
in PISA-
2015: 2 instructive, 2
narrative,
2
expository,
2
argumentative,
2
descriptive
y
2
transactional texts; additionally, 6 are
continuous
and
6,
dis-continuous
texts. The 36 items that comprise the
test
were

also

developed

accord-ing
to the PISA-2015 reading framework
with
the

aim

to

include

the

three
aspect categories that define the PISA
reading
literacy

framework

(access
and retrieve, integrate and
Received: 01-07-2018
Accepted: 30-09-2018
interpret, and reflect and evaluate). The
test validation process is then described;
it
consisted

on

the
evaluation
of

the
content
validity

by

a

group

of

experts
from
the
areas
of
Language
and
Literature
Didactics,
Hispanic
Philology,
Linguistics
and
Communication. Results obtained from
65
students

from

the

Degrees

of

Pre-
primary
Education,

Primary

Education
and
Audio-visual

Communication

are
also
presented,

alongside

the

experts’
evaluation
and

comments,

and

the

test
takers’ perceptions of issues concerning
the test (e.g., perceived difficult-y). The
paper
concludes
with
the
proposed
changes to the test in light of the process
of validation.
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