A Preliminary Study Of The Validity Of The Cet-4 Fast Reading Test

Reading is one of the efficient ways of acquiring information. With the renewing cycle of knowledge turning shorter and shorter, people are exposed to more and more information which is presented in diversified ways. In the face of the huge quantity of information, fast reading abilities have become especially important.In recent years, the College English Test (CET) has undergone great changes and fast reading comprehension has been a new component of the test since December 2006. The CET test is a criterion-related, norm-referenced high-stakes test, which has powerful washback effects on college English teaching and learning. But a component of fast reading test (FRT) was not included in the CET till the recent revision of the CET which was started in 2004. As a newly added part, research in FRT is much needed.Therefore, the researcher expected to investigate the validity of the FRT in CET-4, and find out whether the FRT is really testing the intended reading abilities. The study, therefore, focused on the use of fast reading skills and strategies by the test-takers such as skimming, scanning, and search reading, and those test-wise strategies not intended by the test designers.In order to accomplish the goals, a pilot study was first carried out with a view to checking and further improving the research design. The data of students'text reading and task completion performances were collected in the pilot and main studies. A small number of the test-takers were invited to participate in the introspective study, that is, to report their thinking processes while doing the test. Their reports were recorded and later on transcribed and coded by the researcher. In addition, an interview was also conducted to investigate the students'test taking process in the pilot study. After the test, a questionnaire survey was conducted to all the test-takers to find out their perceptions of the use of reading strategies and also their views on the design of the test.By analyzing the introspective and survey data, the study proves, to some extent, the validity of the FRT. Despite the fact that they sometimes got incorrect answers due to the limited time or poor comprehension, the students were found familiar with the expected fast reading strategies. For example, they read the text very selectively and adopted scanning strategy to look for specific names, dates, or numbers. In addition, it was found that some low-level students often relied on their common sense to answer the questions, which in most cases led to incorrect answers. It was suggested that, though test-wise strategies are unavoidable in the testing context, messages should be sent out to the students that only through the use of expected fast reading strategies, are they likely to arrive at correct answers in a valid fast reading test like the CET-4 FRT.