TOWARDS FUZZY SCORES IN LANGUAGE MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS

The present study aimed at introducing ‘Fuzzy Logic’ as a sound basis for measuring language learners’ abilities. Accordingly, a new method of scoring multiple-choice tests coined by the researchers of this study as ‘Fuzzy scoring’ i.e. ‘Option-based scoring’ has been proposed, intending to provide test-scorers with more reliable results through blurring the binary and rigid difference arisen from the traditional methods of scoring. To this end, 30 Iranian students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) (N=30) were selected from among different universities in Tehran, Iran, who were asked to take a multiple-choice reading comprehension test. The test was initially scored according to the conventional and mainstream method of scoring. Then, the very test was scored based on the fuzzy method, i.e. taking into account the value of each option recognized by the test-takers as distractors. Subsequently, the scores obtained from the two ways of scoring were first compared to each other, and then, to the test-takers’ TOEFL scores. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the two sets of scores due to adopting a different method of scoring. Moreover, the results revealed a higher amount of correlation between the fuzzy scores and the students’ TOEFL scores. The findings of this research suggest that EFL test-givers and scorers view the sensitive and precarious process of scoring from the fuzzy logic-based perspective, aspiring to come to more valid decisions.