Authenticity Of English Oral Ability Testing Of NMET

Based on the testing theories,this paper undertakes an empirical study mainly from the facets of the status quo of English oral testing in NMET and its authenticity,setting an aim to promote the authenticity of English oral test in NMET.In order to answer the research questions of this thesis,several questionnaires and two experimental tests were designed according to the schedules,with a purpose to pose some suggestions on the further development of oral ability testing in NMET and push it more reliable and less subjective.It mainly probes four questions:a)English oral ability is as much important as the other skills?b)The results obtained using English native speakers as interviewers and raters in English oral ability tests are different from the ones obtained from Chinese English teachers?c)In that case would the differences indicate that the English native speakers as interviewers and raters have higher degree of authenticity?d)Candidates tested by English speaking interviewers can develop their potentials better than the ones tested by Chinese teachers?Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been adopted to provide more inputs to data collection and data analyzing.The whole process of the test consists of five different sections:observations section(aiming to observe if the assessments of their English teachers are affected by emotional factors),questionnaires phasel(designed for three groups to figure out how necessary are English oral ability and English oral ability testing are),pre-experimental test(intended to obtain a set of scores to divide candidates into two parallel groups for the following experimental test),experimental test(with a purpose to prove the research questions),questionnaires phase2(designed to get more information about candidates' reactions and oral ability development in experimental test).The candidates of this study are the 122 second year students from the two second best senior high schools in Dali:53 from Dali Minority Senior High School and 69 from Dali New Century Senior High School.In order to optimize the candidates' performance that could be affected by the fact that English native teachers are unfamiliar to them,three or five days before the experimental test all the six English speaking interviewers and raters are required to have a conversation with the candidates.That also helps them in building a global view of the English oral ability of the students.Through the analyses of collected data,the results obtained from questionnaires and experimental tests show that:a)English oral ability testing is as much important as the other language skills.b)Light differences may occur in the scores obtained from English native interviewers and Chinese English teachers.c)Differences in scores indicate higher degree of authenticity of English speaking interviewers.d)Candidates tested by English speaking interviewers can develop their potentials better than the ones tested by Chinese teachers.These results provide new inputs about the evaluation of the current NMET and motivate the reforming of English oral ability test in NMET based on the following conclusion:English speaking raters present higher degree of authenticity compared with Chinese English raters.Additionally they are able to enhance the self-awareness of the candidates' English skill in order to finally carry out the farewell of the so-called"Dumb English learning".As a result,the experimental test proves that English speaking raters have higher creativity to stimulate the candidates' English oral potential.It does not only validate the designed oral test tasks,but also assesses the candidates more validly and reliably.