Validity of EFL Writing Questions Developed by National Exams Centre to Sciences Secondary School Seniors

Abstract

Writing is one of the major skills that are targeted in the textbooks presented to Libyan third year secondary school students who are majoring sciences. To investigate to what extent the students grasped what has been presented to them, an appropriate achievement test is needed. Test items need to be valid through being appropriate and covering the majority of the topics addressed. This paper traced content validity of the questions developed by The National Examination Centre to either help revise or test third year secondary school students who are majoring sciences. Three versions of the questions that were developed by National Exam Centre have been analysed by using content analysis. Questions’ categories have been compared to the aims of the course presented in teachers’ guide and in course book content. Results revealed that these versions violated content validity principles. They did not give writing skill a fair share of test space. Moreover, writing items presented in these versions did not cover writing sub-skills targeted and mostly were grammar-oriented.