A Contrastive Study On The Reading Comprehension Components Between CET-6and IELTS

CET (College English Test) is one of the most influential nationwidestandardized tests in China, which is carried out by Chinese Education Ministry toassess college students’ English achievement/proficiency with the reference to theEnglish Course Requirements. CET includes two bands--CET-4and CET-6, whichcorrespond respectively to different English levels specified in the National CollegeEnglish Teaching Syllabuses. IELTS (The International English Language TestingSystem) is the world’s most popular English testing system for students who want tostudy, work or migrate to English-speaking countries.The author has carried out a comparative study of reading comprehensioncomponents in CET-6and IELTS（A）to explore the influence of different approachesto testing and different test tasks of reading comprehension components upon thetestees’ performance. The present study is mainly conducted by comparing variouscharacteristics in the aspects of reading texts and test tasks.The theoretical basis of the current study is Bachman’s (1990) framework of TestMethod Facets (TMF) in analysis of features of test tasks which can affect test scores.Based on it, the author has proposed a new working framework which is suitable forthe present study and attempted to answer the following three research questions:Research Question1:What are the similarities and differences of the characteristics of reading textbetween CET-6and IELTS reading comprehension components?Research Question2:What are the similarities and differences of the characteristics of test tasksbetween CET-6and IELTS reading comprehension components?Research Question3:What are the similarities and differences of skills to be tested between CET-6andIELTS reading comprehension components?In order to ensure the adequacy of samples, the author has collected9officialexamination papers of CET-6and12of IELTS as the study subjects, within which72passages are drawn. The content analysis is operated in three aspects: analysis ofcharacteristics of reading text in terms of vocabulary, syntax, text forms, topical areasand readability; analysis of characteristics of test task types and analysis of skills to betested in the two reading comprehension tests.From the content analysis, it is found that the texts used in CET-6and IELTS hasno significant difference in aspects of vocabulary and syntax. But in terms ofreadability, text forms and topical areas, differences appear between them. Thecontent analysis also shows that IELTS adopts more diversified test task types thanCET-6. Besides, as to the skills to be tested, CET-6tends to attach more importance tothe testees’ understanding of details, while IELTS inclines to assess their acquisitionof macro-level information.