On Content Validation Of TEM4 Reading Comprehension

TEM 4 (Test for English Majors-Band 4), as the only national standard test for English majors, has been increasingly recognized in China and over the world in recent years, such as ACCA in Britain (It requires students to provide the TEM certificate to prove their English proficiency). TEM 4 has been implemented for many years since 1990 and has already become one of the criteria for judging English teaching and learning in China. Therefore, it is necessary to give more attention to its development. Meanwhile, reading comprehension, as the main way to acquire a language, is regarded to be vital important all the time, so how to measure reading comprehension ability accurately and properly in language testing and whether reading comprehension in TEM 4 can reflect the test-taker's reading ability are worthy of being researched.This thesis mainly examines the content validity of TEM 4 reading comprehension section from 2005 to 2008, combined with Weir's framework for validating content of reading text, in accordance with the teaching syllabus, test syllabus and test specifications. Through careful study and analysis, this study has shown that TEM 4 reading comprehension part has relatively high content validity. The contents of TEM 4 reading comprehension part are greatly consistent internally and basically correspond with the requirements in the teaching syllabus, test syllabus and test specification externally. However, we also notice that there are some deficiencies affecting the content validity of TEM 4, such as limited test method, and some suggestions are proposed for future improvement.