基于实证研究的大学英语四级考试三十年变革与发展

An Empirical Study of the Reform and Development on CET 4 During 30-years

文章基于CET4的实施情况和考试大纲的变化,总结出CET4的五个发展阶段,选取每个阶段有代表性的初始年份1987、1997、2007、2015、2017年的九套试题为研究对象,参照Bachman&Palmer[1]的任务特征框架,从历时对比的视角对试卷结构和具体测试内容两个方面展开分析。研究结果表明:在三十年的发展中,CET4在考查技能、考试题型、材料难度、材料的体裁和题材、题目的表述、考试要求等方面更趋科学和合理。然而分析中也发现了一些不足,即部分试卷阅读材料体裁和题材过于集中、快速阅读篇章难度偏大、个别阅读篇章过难等。

According to the implementation of CET - 4 and the change of the CET - 4 test syllabus, this papersums up the five stages of development of CET - 4 test. Then based on test task characteristics put forward by Bachman＆Palmer, this paper compares and analyzes the test structure and test content of ninerepresentative test papers （ the year of 1987,1997, 2007, 2015 and 2017 ） . The findings reveal thatthe skills examined, question types, the difficulty,the genres and the topic of the materials, question illustration, test requirements have become more and more reasonable and scientific over the past threedecades. However, some defects need to be addressed： reading materials of some test papers are confined to limited genres and topics, while those of some other testpapers are too difficult.