درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Following Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz’s (1990) classification, this study examines the relationship between power and gender of the addressees and the type and number of refusal strategies employed by Sarawani Baloch male university students (SBMUS). Fifty SBMUS studying in Azad University of Sarawan were randomly chosen as the participants of the study. Data collection was accomplished through applying a revised version of DCT (Discourse Completion Test). The data collected were then coded and analyzed according to Beebe et al.'s (ibid.) taxonomy, and Chi-square and Correlation test results. The results show that refusal strategies extracted, are, for the most part, similar to those given in Beebe et al.’s work, which, in turn, confirms the universality of applying refusal strategies. However, SBMUS also employ some new strategies not predicted in the given scheme, suggesting the effect of their religion and culture. Research findings also denote the ineffectiveness of power and gender of the addressees on the type of refusal strategies employed by SBMUS. Moreover, results indicate that although power of the addressees affects number of refusal strategies used by the participants, their gender does not affect this variable. “Excuse, reason, explanation” dealing with all the addressees, the combination of 3 refusal strategies in reply to those in higher social power, and the combination of 2 strategies in response to those with equal and lower power are the most frequent refusal strategies regarding the type and number of refusal strategies.

Validation is an important enterprise especially when a test is a high stakes one. Demographic variables like gender and field of study can affect test results and interpretations. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is a way to make sure that a test does not favor one group of test takers over the others. This study investigated DIF in terms of gender in the reading comprehension subtest (35 items) of a high stakes test using a three-step logistic regression procedure (Zumbo, 1999). The participants of the study were 3,398 test takers, both males and females, who took the test in question (the UTEPT) as a partial requirement for entering a PhD program at the University of Tehran. To show whether the 35 items of the reading comprehension part exhibited DIF or not, logistic regression using a three step procedure (Zumbo, 1999) was employed. Three sets of criteria of Cohen’s (1988), Zumbo’s (1999), and Jodin and Girel’s (2001) were selected. It was revealed that, though the 35 items show “small” effect sizes according to Cohen’s classification, they do not display DIF based on the other two criteria. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reading comprehension subtest of the UTEPT favors neither males nor females.