The paper is an evaluative research on the possible washback effects of College English Test. By comparing and analyzing the differences between the old and new tests, it points out three major changes and their possi...The paper is an evaluative research on the possible washback effects of College English Test. By comparing and analyzing the differences between the old and new tests, it points out three major changes and their possible washback effects on the process of English language teaching and learning： abandon the part of Grammar ＆ Vocabulary, increase the proportion of listening test and change the test reporting form.展开更多
Beginning with the analysis of the problems that the College English Test （CET） in China has brought about in recent years, this paper aims to introduce its recent reform both in the test contents and the management...Beginning with the analysis of the problems that the College English Test （CET） in China has brought about in recent years, this paper aims to introduce its recent reform both in the test contents and the management system, administered by Ministry of Education of China.展开更多
The intent of this paper is to evaluate College English Test(CET)’s reliability,validity and washback effect in the con⁃text of language assessment by applying Brown’s framework of test usefulness.The result of lite...The intent of this paper is to evaluate College English Test(CET)’s reliability,validity and washback effect in the con⁃text of language assessment by applying Brown’s framework of test usefulness.The result of literature review and discussion shows that CET’s student-related reliability and rater reliability for writing section are unfavorable while its test administration reliability and rater reliability for CETSET has been increasing;CET’s content and construct validity are getting improved but its criterionrelated validity has been violated due to students’inappropriate learning attitude;CET’s negative washback has been caused due to the overemphasis on passing rate,but previous surveys shows positive washback in teaching and learning as students’reading and oral communication abilities have been improved.In the end,three suggestions for CET’s development are summed up:empha⁃sis less on test result;inform students with the significance of CET’s reform;the relationship among testing,teaching and learning should be built into a mutual promotion format.展开更多
Having been implemented since the year 1987, College English Test(CET) is now a national English test used to measure college students' English language competence and promote English language teaching and learnin...Having been implemented since the year 1987, College English Test(CET) is now a national English test used to measure college students' English language competence and promote English language teaching and learning in classrooms. And later in 1999 national CTE committee launched College English Test-Spoken English Test(CET-SET) and started to include speaking as one part but not a compulsory part of this assessment. Now still only a small group of candidates can take CET- SET,which suggested by many researchers could bring harmful backwash to classroom teaching. Therefore, this paper presents a study and evaluation of CET-SET for college students in China. It mainly divides into four parts. Part one gives an introduction about the teaching contexts of college students and their needs for English study. Part two discusses the harmful backwash from CET as well as the reasons and needs to introduce and recommend CET-SET. The third part sheds light on the strengths of CETSET including its beneficial backwash, the test format and the scoring system. The last part talks about its weakness and provide some suggestions and modifications.展开更多
While Colleague English Tests (CET) have promoted the college English teaching, they have also led to the extension of test-oriented education and hindered students' capability in communication. To examine the val...While Colleague English Tests (CET) have promoted the college English teaching, they have also led to the extension of test-oriented education and hindered students' capability in communication. To examine the validity of CET Band Four, resumed tests were carried out in sampled students of Grade 2001 one year after they took CET-4 in December, 2002. The control class was examined with the original paper of CET-4 2002, while the treatment class was tested with the same paper in which the multiple-choice questions were all changed into the subjective ones. The test scores were processed by statistical analysis. The results showed that although there was no significant difference between the two classes in CET-4 scores, there was significant difference between them in their experimental test scores. The scores of the treatment class were significantly lower than that of the control class, which proves that CET cannot objectively reflect students' capability in communication, and thus its validity is low. To eliminate the negative backwash effect of CET, suggestions are put forward that CET be devised as a criterion-referenced test, frequency of the test be reduced, subjective questions be increased, and commercialization of the test be avoided.展开更多
As one of the world well-known high-stakes tests, CET-4 （College English Test Band 4） changed from being generally accepted to being widely questioned in the past 25 years. In spite of a series of reforms of CET-4, ...As one of the world well-known high-stakes tests, CET-4 （College English Test Band 4） changed from being generally accepted to being widely questioned in the past 25 years. In spite of a series of reforms of CET-4, the negative impact of CET-4 remains intense. Three main reasons are probed into here. Firstly, the objective of CET-4 is ambiguous. Secondly, the test objective does not accord with teaching objective. Finally, test contents do not match well with the practical language use. To improve the present passive state of CET-4, some suggestions are given.展开更多
The analysis of test paper is greatly significant to the improvement of testing and English teaching. This paper evaluates a College English archievement test by examining its reliability and validity,both of which ar...The analysis of test paper is greatly significant to the improvement of testing and English teaching. This paper evaluates a College English archievement test by examining its reliability and validity,both of which are of primary concern in testing. And item analysis is also conducted to find out the problems of the test itself. Based on the evaluation,the paper is to call for teachers'attention of enhancing the quality of archievement test.展开更多
This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and thro...This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and through semi-structured retrospective interviews. The study explores relationships between the test-takers＇ actual performance and the instructions for the compound dictation test, the language abilities measured, any major construct-irrelevant factors affecting the test-taking processes, and the performance patterns of performance across test-takers of different overall proficiency levels. Findings are as follows. （1） Test-takers＇ actual performance does not apparently relate to the instructions given in the compound dictation test, which may raise doubts over the effectiveness of the instructions, thereby posing a potential threat to test validity. （2） Test-takers may pay more attention to the pronunciation of the words to be used to fill the blanks than to the actual meaning of the words, their difficulties in spelling and sentential expression possibly interfering with test performance even though they appear to use a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies throughout the test. （3） A number of construct-irrelevant factors posing a potential threat to test validity were found in the test-taking processes. Some of these factors are related to the test-takers, for example, memory capacity, attention failure and psychological factors, while others relate to the test, including speech rate and time constraints. （4） Test-takers in the study at all three proficiency levels appeared not to follow the instructions given in the compound dictation test. However, higher proficiency test-takers appeared to make more frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and they appeared to be less influenced by construct-irrelevant factors.展开更多
文摘The paper is an evaluative research on the possible washback effects of College English Test. By comparing and analyzing the differences between the old and new tests, it points out three major changes and their possible washback effects on the process of English language teaching and learning： abandon the part of Grammar ＆ Vocabulary, increase the proportion of listening test and change the test reporting form.
文摘Beginning with the analysis of the problems that the College English Test （CET） in China has brought about in recent years, this paper aims to introduce its recent reform both in the test contents and the management system, administered by Ministry of Education of China.
文摘The intent of this paper is to evaluate College English Test(CET)’s reliability,validity and washback effect in the con⁃text of language assessment by applying Brown’s framework of test usefulness.The result of literature review and discussion shows that CET’s student-related reliability and rater reliability for writing section are unfavorable while its test administration reliability and rater reliability for CETSET has been increasing;CET’s content and construct validity are getting improved but its criterionrelated validity has been violated due to students’inappropriate learning attitude;CET’s negative washback has been caused due to the overemphasis on passing rate,but previous surveys shows positive washback in teaching and learning as students’reading and oral communication abilities have been improved.In the end,three suggestions for CET’s development are summed up:empha⁃sis less on test result;inform students with the significance of CET’s reform;the relationship among testing,teaching and learning should be built into a mutual promotion format.
文摘Having been implemented since the year 1987, College English Test(CET) is now a national English test used to measure college students' English language competence and promote English language teaching and learning in classrooms. And later in 1999 national CTE committee launched College English Test-Spoken English Test(CET-SET) and started to include speaking as one part but not a compulsory part of this assessment. Now still only a small group of candidates can take CET- SET,which suggested by many researchers could bring harmful backwash to classroom teaching. Therefore, this paper presents a study and evaluation of CET-SET for college students in China. It mainly divides into four parts. Part one gives an introduction about the teaching contexts of college students and their needs for English study. Part two discusses the harmful backwash from CET as well as the reasons and needs to introduce and recommend CET-SET. The third part sheds light on the strengths of CETSET including its beneficial backwash, the test format and the scoring system. The last part talks about its weakness and provide some suggestions and modifications.
基金This article is a product of the research programsponsored by Beijing Education Committee .
文摘While Colleague English Tests (CET) have promoted the college English teaching, they have also led to the extension of test-oriented education and hindered students' capability in communication. To examine the validity of CET Band Four, resumed tests were carried out in sampled students of Grade 2001 one year after they took CET-4 in December, 2002. The control class was examined with the original paper of CET-4 2002, while the treatment class was tested with the same paper in which the multiple-choice questions were all changed into the subjective ones. The test scores were processed by statistical analysis. The results showed that although there was no significant difference between the two classes in CET-4 scores, there was significant difference between them in their experimental test scores. The scores of the treatment class were significantly lower than that of the control class, which proves that CET cannot objectively reflect students' capability in communication, and thus its validity is low. To eliminate the negative backwash effect of CET, suggestions are put forward that CET be devised as a criterion-referenced test, frequency of the test be reduced, subjective questions be increased, and commercialization of the test be avoided.
文摘As one of the world well-known high-stakes tests, CET-4 （College English Test Band 4） changed from being generally accepted to being widely questioned in the past 25 years. In spite of a series of reforms of CET-4, the negative impact of CET-4 remains intense. Three main reasons are probed into here. Firstly, the objective of CET-4 is ambiguous. Secondly, the test objective does not accord with teaching objective. Finally, test contents do not match well with the practical language use. To improve the present passive state of CET-4, some suggestions are given.
文摘The analysis of test paper is greatly significant to the improvement of testing and English teaching. This paper evaluates a College English archievement test by examining its reliability and validity,both of which are of primary concern in testing. And item analysis is also conducted to find out the problems of the test itself. Based on the evaluation,the paper is to call for teachers'attention of enhancing the quality of archievement test.
基金part of the achievements funded by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (No. 0205005201030)the National Scholarship Council of China (No. 2010850066)granted to the first author to support a one-year visiting professorship
文摘This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and through semi-structured retrospective interviews. The study explores relationships between the test-takers＇ actual performance and the instructions for the compound dictation test, the language abilities measured, any major construct-irrelevant factors affecting the test-taking processes, and the performance patterns of performance across test-takers of different overall proficiency levels. Findings are as follows. （1） Test-takers＇ actual performance does not apparently relate to the instructions given in the compound dictation test, which may raise doubts over the effectiveness of the instructions, thereby posing a potential threat to test validity. （2） Test-takers may pay more attention to the pronunciation of the words to be used to fill the blanks than to the actual meaning of the words, their difficulties in spelling and sentential expression possibly interfering with test performance even though they appear to use a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies throughout the test. （3） A number of construct-irrelevant factors posing a potential threat to test validity were found in the test-taking processes. Some of these factors are related to the test-takers, for example, memory capacity, attention failure and psychological factors, while others relate to the test, including speech rate and time constraints. （4） Test-takers in the study at all three proficiency levels appeared not to follow the instructions given in the compound dictation test. However, higher proficiency test-takers appeared to make more frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and they appeared to be less influenced by construct-irrelevant factors.
