An Exploratory Study On The Reform Of The Receptive Skill Test In CET

CET, the only set of national tests which targets non-English majors in China's universities, is already gaining popularity among universities across China as a means of assessing College English teaching and learning. However, it is by no means free from imperfection because of its large proportion of multiple-choice (MC) items. This fact urges the Chinese experts to reform the receptive skill test in CET which almost all consists of MC items. Although general suggestions have been proposed on the reform of the receptive skill test in CET, concrete measures are still to be sought. IELTS, a successful communicative English language test, has set up a good example to CET. The purpose of this paper is to identify the present situation of the receptive skill test in CET and to make use of the experience of IELTS for reference to make CET a better measurement of the test takers' real English proficiency. Three approaches are employed in this study: a questionnaire survey, a comparative study and an error analysis. In order to identify the present situation of the receptive skill test in CET, a questionnaire survey is conducted among 100 CET markers. Comparative study of the receptive skill test between CET-4 sample test (1994) and IELTS specimen paper (1997) is made to draw on the experience of IELTS to reform the receptive skill test in CET. In the error analysis, the causes for the failure of the not well-designed non-MC items in the receptive skill test of CET-4 (June, 1997) and IELTS specimen paper (1997) are analyzed so as to avoid making the same mistakes in test design in the future. Based on these researches, 20 suggestions on the reform of the receptive skill test in CET are proposed. Some are general, some specific; some about text, some about question; some concerning abolishing the inappropriate part in CET, some on improving the present item types and some involving with developing new item types.