Avoiding Obstacles to Student Comprehension of Test Questions

We present preliminary criteria to consider in the writing of English for academic purposes (EAP) reading comprehension tests. Such criteria are necessary as a frame of reference for a large and diverse teaching staff. The criteria pertain to the test as a whole as well as to the form of individual questions. The choice of items derives from our classroom and test‐writing experience and reflects the comprehension problems that students encounter with test questions. These problems may indeed be stumbling blocks for the student because they constitute processing constraints. Pragmatic theory can provide a theoretical framework to explain these processing constraints. 1992 TESOL International Association