考研英语一与考研英语二阅读理解A部分文本复杂度对比研究

A Comparative Research on Text Complexity of Reading Part A in NETEM I and NETEM II

自从2010年以来,全国硕士研究生入学英语考试划分为考研英语一(学术型)和考研英语二(专业型)。本研究以Bachman和Palmer提出的任务特征框架为理论基础,利用Coh-Metrix和Vocab Profile对考研英语一和考研英语二阅读理解A部分的文本复杂度进行了对比研究。本研究从词汇特点、句法特点、语篇特点和易读度四个维度对两种英语阅读考试的文本进行了研究,并运用SPSS对以上四个方面分别进行独立样本t检验,旨在发现两者文本的难易度是否存在差异。结果显示,考研英语一阅读文本和考研英语二阅读文本在平均词长、篇章长度、语义重叠以及易读度四个方面存在显著差异,其余部分并不存在显著差异。

Since 2010, NETEM (National Entrance Test of English for MA/MS Candidates) has been classified into NETEM I (academic-oriented) and NETEM II (professional-oriented). Based on the framework of task characteristics proposed by Bachman and Palmer, this research uses Coh-Metrix and Vocab Profile to conduct a comparative study on the text complexity of Reading Part A in NETEM I and NETEM II. This research studies the two English reading texts from four dimensions: lexical characteristics, syntactic characteristics, discourse characteristics and readability. SPSS is used to conduct independent-samples T test on the four aspects respectively, aiming at finding out whether there are differences in the difficulty of the two reading texts. The results show that there are significant differences in average word length, text length, semantic overlap and read ability between NETEM I and NETEM II, while no significant differences can be found in other aspects.