Multiple-choice item distractor evaluation of the national assessment listening comprehension tasks of grade 6 primary school students

Distractors or incorrect answer options in multiple-choice tasks allow us to differentiate between students’ knowledge. Students who have not yet fully mastered the necessary knowledge to understand a given issue are affected by distractions within distractors. The student's attention is thus diverted from the correct answer to the incorrect answer. However, students who recognize distractors and choose the correct answer understand what the question requires of them, and consequently, know how to answer it correctly. The main objectives of the research, which is based on a quantitative research approach, were to determine whether distractors are qualitatively designed in the existing auditory comprehension tasks in national testing of pupils and what are common characteristics of qualitative distractors. With the computer program OrKa RIC, we reviewed the answers of sixth-graders who took the national testing of pupils in 2018 and 2019 and based on the collected data, reviewed theory, and previous research, determined whether the existing distractors are of appropriate quality or not. The obtained data were quantitatively analysed and interpreted in tabular, graphical, and descriptive forms. According to the item difficulty and item discrimination for testing items of studied exams and regarding taxonomic levels, we concluded that the majority of the used distractors from national tests in 2018 and 2019 are of good quality. The master's thesis thus sheds light on the issue of the use of distractors in English listening comprehension multiple-choice tasks and emphasizes the importance of the quality of each individual distractor. We want to contribute to the development of foreign language methodology by evaluating the application of distractors (incorrect answers) and finding reasons for determining quality of distractors in multiple-choice tasks and create guidelines for creators of foreign language national tests as well as for classroom language teachers, school pedagogues involved in planning and designing assessment tasks, especially to the development of external examinations as well as examinations and assessments of foreign language proficiency in general