Exploring L2 Learners' Attitude towards High-stakes and Low-stakes Tests

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether Iranian EFL
learners’ attitude differ significantly towards high-stakes and low-stakes tests. To that
end, 232 male and female participants responded to Persian version of Test Attitude
Survey designed by Arvey, Strickland, Drauden, and Martin (1990). The questionnaire
included 42 Likert items distributed unequally between eight factors of motivation,
lack of concentration, belief in tests, comparative anxiety, test ease, external
attribution, future effect, and preparation. The third grade high school English
language graduation examination was selected as an instance of high-stakes tests and
the end-of-the-course, teacher-made tests of general English course at university level
were considered as representative of low-stakes ones. The questionnaires were scored
on Likert scale and the gathered data were subjected to the nonparametric Mann-
Whitney U-test. The findings of this study illustrated that, in general, there seems to be
no significant difference between these two groups of test takers’ attitudes towards
high-stakes and low-stakes tests. Besides, regarding the eight attitudinal factors, only
four factors, namely motivation, lack of concentration, future effect, and preparation
were found significantly different.