The primary objective of this study was to investigate English midterm test items through the application of the Rasch measurement modeling. The teacher-constructed 21 multiple choice test items to which 190 subjects responded as their midterm summative test were submitted to Winsteps 7, a Rasch measurement model program. The Rasch analysis results showed six out of 21 items misfitted the model. The qualitative analysis of those six items revealed that most of those items had more than two correct answers. The other analysis of the equivalency between item difficulties and subjects’ abilities indicated that most items matched only with mid-level ability groups of subjects, lacking items for both upper and lower levels of subjects. It was also found that items related to text organization were among the easiest items, giving support for the efficacy of text-based instruction. The findings of this study also implied that more training of constructing and banking items may be necessary for inservice English teachers, who should take the responsibilities for introducing positive washback effects to their students.

• Jaewoo Shim(Chonbuk National University)