The Naqra u Nifhem Maltese reading comprehension TL2: a standardisation study on children attending year 6

Abstract

This dissertation undertakes to extend the norms and the reading age equivalence of the Naqra u Nifhem Maltese Reading Comprehension Test Level 2 (intended for secondary school) down to Year 6 (primary school). The study comprises an item analysis of the 54 items of the TL2 in a Year 6 context, an establishment of the indicative norms for 10 ½ year old Year 6 pupils in their performance of the TL2, and the computation of a correlation between Year 6 pupils' performance on the Annual Benchmark examination and on the TL2. Each item's facility and discrimination indices were calculated and evaluated within a Year 6 setting, establishing which of the items were appropriate for the given setting and which items proved to be less than optimal while the correlation study was conducted to explore the validity of the use of a secondary level test in upper primary schools with positive results. The stratified sample comprised around 700 pupils from the three school sectors, with an equal representation of both genders.