| It is probable that every teacher will be involved in the preparation and use of achievement tests in their teaching activities. Thus, how to make achievement tests reflect teaching effects accurately and exert a beneficial backwash on future teaching and learning is a very important issue to be concerned. The function of language testing determines that all kinds of tests should enable test takers to perform to the best of their ability. Tests should measure accurately whatever they are intended to measure and scores obtained by the testees must be consistent and reliable. To achieve the goal, teachers should try their best to improve the quality of test papers.As for the quality of a test, the aspects of test format, test content and score proportion should be taken into serious consideration. However, the ordering of items has not been given enough attention. And item sequencing is a very important issue that will affect the achievement of a student. Reasonable item sequencing will reduce testees'test anxiety and make them perform in a better mood. Therefore, item sequencing is a very important factor in improving the quality of test papers.Based on the theoretical background of validity, reliability and practicality, the purpose of this thesis is to elicit the answer to the question—which kind of item sequencing (easy to hard item sequencing or hard to easy item sequencing) will benefit Chinese tertiary students most to get true scores in achievement tests.Through comparison and analysis of the results, the author found that students perform differently with different item sequencings. This meets the previous hypothesis: there is a relationship between item sequencing and students'performance on achievement tests. And compared with"hard to easy"item sequencing,"easy to hard"item sequencing is more beneficial for the students.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter 1 elaborates on the importance of the quality of achievement tests and the significance of the present study. The research question is raised in this chapter. Chapter 2 mainly focuses on the previous studies on item sequencing, and the theories concerning the present study are included. Chapter 3 is about the empirical research methodology, including participants, research design and procedure, results and data analyses. Chapter 4 is the discussion and implication on future teaching and learning based on this study. The final chapter consists of conclusion, with limitations to be pointed out and some suggestions for future research. |
