Listening ability constitutes an important part of a language learner＇s communicative language competence. This universal agreement necessitates an inclusion of a listening sub-test in any English proficiency test ai...Listening ability constitutes an important part of a language learner＇s communicative language competence. This universal agreement necessitates an inclusion of a listening sub-test in any English proficiency test aimed at evaluating the candidates＇ comprehensive competence. Being a criterion-referenced proficiency test, both TEM4 and TEM8 （Test for English Majors： Band 4/8） contain a listening sub-test in their test battery. In this case, improving the authenticity of the listening sub-tests in TEM will no doubt be a contributory factor in improving the authenticity of the whole test. Based on the analyses of the current listening sub-tests used in TEM, the author concludes that there exists some inauthenticity in the test tasks. One source of the inauthenticity results from the input and the other from the test tasks which seem to be stereotyped in the current tests. In order to solve these two problems, the author suggests that major English varieties and limited-constructed-response question types be included in the TEM sub-tests so as to improve the authenticity of the tests and the accuracy of assessment.展开更多
文摘Listening ability constitutes an important part of a language learner＇s communicative language competence. This universal agreement necessitates an inclusion of a listening sub-test in any English proficiency test aimed at evaluating the candidates＇ comprehensive competence. Being a criterion-referenced proficiency test, both TEM4 and TEM8 （Test for English Majors： Band 4/8） contain a listening sub-test in their test battery. In this case, improving the authenticity of the listening sub-tests in TEM will no doubt be a contributory factor in improving the authenticity of the whole test. Based on the analyses of the current listening sub-tests used in TEM, the author concludes that there exists some inauthenticity in the test tasks. One source of the inauthenticity results from the input and the other from the test tasks which seem to be stereotyped in the current tests. In order to solve these two problems, the author suggests that major English varieties and limited-constructed-response question types be included in the TEM sub-tests so as to improve the authenticity of the tests and the accuracy of assessment.
