Building A Common Reference Scale Of Lexical Analysis Ability For NMEE:an Empirical Study

This thesis designs an empirical study on the common reference scale of lexical analysis ability for National Matriculation English Examination (NMEE). Lexical analysis ability (LAA) is an indispensible part of NMEE. Up to now, the descriptions of language competence at home and abroad are mainly based on Communicative Language Ability (CLA). However, CLA focuses on composition research of language ability, but it lacks quantitative analysis of language ability. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) describes language competence on a scale of six levels. In China, there are many defects of the descriptors of National Matriculation English Examination Syllabus (NMEES) and English Curriculum Standards (ECS). Vague definitions of descriptors and crossed classifications bring difficulties to paper designing and evaluation of NMEE.Based on Cognitive Processing Ability of Discourse Information (CPADI) and CLA, this thesis aims to answer the following two questions:(1) What are the can-do statements of the lexical analysis ability of NMEE?(2) What are the dimensionalities of lexical analysis ability of NMEE? The research procedure consists of two parts: descriptors collection and analysis. The former aims at establishing a collection of descriptors of LAA of NMEE. The latter is designed to investigate the reasonability and reliability, and explore dimensionalities of LAA, so as to improve the common reference scale of LAA of NMEE. This study takes the text paper of NMEE in every province from1985to2012as research subjects and aims at collecting the can-do statements of LAA from the perspective of quantification based on the frequency statistics of LAA items. After ten experts’discussion,25can-do statements were finally obtained. And the results of expert judgment are basically consistent. In the end, based on76students’ understanding and mastery of can-do statements, two common factors of LAA, or two dimensionalities, were obtained by means of factor analysis.Combining the qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis, this study explores the common reference scale of LAA for NMEE and makes clear the descriptors of LAA and dimensionalities of the LAA. The results show that,(1) there are25can-do statements of LAA of NMEE, such as "Can identify indefinite article","Can identify definite article","Can identify zero article","Can identify verb phrase" and so on.(2)25can-do statements can be classified into two dimensionalities, that is to say, structural words analysis ability and notional words analysis ability. All the above provides a useful reference for English teaching, learning and testing. The research results contribute to improving the test paper quality of item-writing autonomy and autonomous recruiting exams, at the same time promoting language learning and communication.However, due to the limitations of subjective and objective conditions, the validity of the common reference scale of LAA for NMEE needs to be verified and improved by further research.