The Construct Validition Of Gap-Filling Test Item In Fujian Martriculation English Test

The importance of gap-filling test item is obvious:it occupies10points in Fujian Matriculation English Test. In this case, it is necessary to analyze construct validity of gap-filling test item with reference to the Standards for English Curriculum for high school English teaching.This study aims to validate gap-filling test item by comparing with the cloze test item in Fujian Matriculation English Test. First, this article states that the cloze test item is designed to test students’ability of reading and comprehensive use of vocabulary, while gap-filling test is intended to assess students’textual competence and language expression, which prove that high level test points in these two test items are proposed. Nevertherless, this study shows that gap-filling test also examine the low level test points, such as grammar, vocabulary, and spelling, which indicates that construct validity should be proved by evidence from other aspects.By analyzing the questionnaire conducted among high school English teachers, we found that most teachers do realize that the cloze test item is proposed to test students’ textual comprehension ability; while for gap-filling test, though it is intended to test such comprehension ability as well, it emphasizes more on spelling and grammar. Therefore, the construct of gap-filling test item is validated partially by the data collected from questionnaire done by the teachers.The third aspect is the data gathered by way of think-aloud conducted in the process of the students’performing the test task. The data validate the construct of the gap-filling test item. At last, we analyze two teaching cases, that is, the same teaching content with two different teaching designs, and interview some other teachers to so as to provide evidence to support construct validity. We found that some teachers paid no attention to the understanding of passage teaching, while though some other teachers do realize passage comprehension teaching in gap-filling test, they miss the chance to develop the skill for lack of teaching strategies, and still emphasized low level test points. This means in gap-filling test of the Matriculation English Test, high level test points are not measured as intended, which leads to the fact that teachers do not put enough emphasis on textual teaching.