University of Isfahan Applied Research on English Language 2252-0198 3 2 2014 08 01 A confirmatory study of Differential Item Functioning on EFL reading comprehension 55 68 15489 10.22108/are.2014.15489 EN Alireza Ahmadi Shiraz University, Iran Touraj Jalili Shiraz University; PhD Candidate, University of Isfahan, Iran Journal Article 2014 04 23 The  present  study  aimed  at  investigating  DIF  sources  on  an  EFL  reading  comprehension <br />test.  Accordingly,  2  DIF  detection  methods,  logistic  regression  (LR)  and  item  response <br />theory  (IRT),  were  used  to  flag  emergent  DIF  of  203  (110  females  &  93  males)  Iranian <br />EFL examinees’ performance on a reading comprehension test. Seven hypothetical DIF <br />sources were examined in this regard: text familiarity, gender, topic/text interest, guessing, <br />and  the  social  variables  of  location,  income,  and  educational  status.  Only  LR,  for  gender <br />and  text  familiarity,  could  preempt  DIF  with  gender  supporting  the  gendered-text  effect <br />while  text  familiarity  benefiting,  inversely,  the  participants  with  low  level  of  text <br />familiarity.  For  interest  in  topic,  LR  found  a  single  item  favoring  the  group  with  higher <br />levels  of  interest  and  the  IRT  model  detected  DIF  in  either  extreme.  Regarding  guessing <br />and  income,  the  LR  indicated  DIF  supporting  the  low  guessers  and  high-income  group <br />whereas IRT, conversely,  showed DIF  favoring the high guessers and low-income  group. <br />For  location  and  education  both  methods,  correspondingly,  demonstrated  DIF  for  the <br />expensive  location  and  educated  groups.  Finally,  the  differential  test  functioning  result <br />made it clear that only three sources of DIF (gender, income, & interests) were transferred <br />to the test level. The findings could support a proportional effect of DIF sources. https://are.ui.ac.ir/article_15489_9e33df94cd1abc40c3dc9bcb612ad100.pdf