A Study On Input Authenticity Of The Reading Comprehension Materials Of HMET

Early in 1985, Shanghai started its own college matriculation English test experiment. With the come out of The New Curriculum Standard in 2001, more and more provinces and autonomous regions have had their tests designed autonomously in the light of their own regional English teaching characteristics with the aim of looking for the most suitable test mode. Hunan province began its autonomous test design in 2004.Authenticity in testing is one of the core issues in language test field. It is one of the main features that differentiate communicative language testing from traditional testing. As an important component of the usefulness in communicative testing, authenticity has huge influence on language teaching and testing. Authenticity degree is closely related to test takers'language use proficiency. To study the authenticity of the ordinary unification English test of Hunan college entrance examination (Hunan Matriculation English Test, HMET) cannot only probe into authenticity more specifically; it can also put forward some recommendations for future test construction.The research object is 35 reading comprehension passages of HMET from 2004 to 2010. The input authenticity of reading passages will be studied with the authenticity assessment framework of Bachman and both the qualitative and quantitative methods will be employed in the analysis.The major findings of the present study are briefly summarized as follows:First, the reading part of HMET from 2004 to 2010 embodies the requirements of teaching and testing syllabi well, the authenticity of reading materials has been guaranteed. This can play positive washback to the English teaching in high school due to the large scale and magnificent influences of HMET.Second, on the basis of the two syllabi and combined with its regional characteristics, the requirement of students'language ability has been adjusted appropriately higher. The passage length is longer than NMET, and correspondingly the requirement of reading speed is more demanding.Third, it attaches more importance to students'application and integrated abilities. The single testing format of reading, multiple choice, has been injected in new blood—ask-and-answer. However, the length and difficulty of the reading materials require a better balance. Far from being perfect,this thesis is still believed to be of significance to propose suggestions for English testing construction in Hunan Province and in mainland China.