CET4翻译试题难度一致吗?——以2014年6月CET4三段平行翻译试题为例

Are CET4 parallel translation tasks at the same difficulty level?—A case study of CET4 translation tasks in June 2014

平行试题的难度一致性影响测试的公平性。本研究旨在探讨2013年CET翻译试题调整后所采用的平行翻译文本的难度一致性。研究采集了59位非英语专业本科生作答2014年6月CET4三套平行翻译试题的实验分数,并分析了其对试题难度的评价及原因。研究发现,三套平行翻译试题难度不一致,以"核能"为主题的科技题材翻译文本难度明显高于主题为"义务教育"和"读书日"的教育题材文本;问卷调查结果显示"专业词汇"和"复杂的句子结构"是造成翻译试题难度差异的主要原因。本文最后对CET4翻译平行试题的命制及翻译教学提出了建议。

Difficulty consistency of parallel forms affects test fairness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulty consistency of parallel translation tasks after the adjustment of CET translation test in 2013. The study collected 59 non-English majors＇ experimental test scores of the three parallel translation tasks in CET4 of June 2014 and analyzed their responses to a survey on test difficulty and the reasons for their opinions. The results show that the ＂Nuclear Energy＂ task is significantly more difficult than the tasks of ＂Compulsory Education＂ and ＂Reading Day＂. A questionnaire survey indicates that ＂specialized vocabulary＂ and ＂complex sentence stIucture＂ are the main variables contributing to the difficulty level difference. This study provides some suggestions for the refinement of parallel translation tasks to ensure test fairness in CET4.