An Investigation into University English Language Instructors’ Inclusion of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills in Testing Language Skills: Selected Universities in Focus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate into university English language instructors’ inclusion of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive skills in testing undergraduate students’ language skills. The participants of the study were 32 English language instructors who were offering English language courses to undergraduate students. They were selected using a purposive sampling. All the participant-instructors were made to fill in a close-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview was held with four of them. Document analysis was also conducted using the judgments of the English language experts. Data collected by the questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively using frequency counts and percentages, whereas data gathered through the interview was analyzed qualitatively. The study employed a descriptive research design and mixed-methods approach. The study's findings revealed that the test items are hardly higher-level cognitive skills (analyzing, evaluating and creating); they are completely dominated by lower-level cognitions (remembering, understanding and applying). Hence, it is recommended that university ELT instructors should give due attention for the revised Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive skills in testing their students’ language skills.