| This thesis conducts an empirical study on a common reference scale of phonological perception ability for National Matriculation English Examination (NMEE). Phonological ability is one of the most important components of listening testing in NMEE. Compared with other language abilities, phonological perception ability has long been regarded as the most difficult and important one in listening test. Researches which are based on the theory of Communicative Language Ability on the phonological perception ability at home and abroad mainly are qualitative. While those quantitative researches on establishing the scale of phonological perception ability, especially on building the common scale of phonological perception ability for NMEE are relatively infrequent. The establishment of the scale of phonological perception ability for NMEE provides a common reference for English teaching, learning and testing of all regions, which contributes to improving the quality of item-writing autonomy and enhancing the mutual learning and communication.To establish a common scale of language ability is not easy. First of all, a "Can-do" statement is for an ability indicator. The definition and classification of a "Can-do" statement is hard to demonstrate. Secondly levels of ability are difficult to distinguish, and their differences are not easy to prove. Last but not least, to relate "Can-do" statements to testing items are also hard, for example the definitions and levels of "Can-do" statements of language abilities among Curriculum Standard and Examination Outline are vague, and its classifications are overlapped. Therefore all those above-mentioned deficiencies make the proposition and evaluation of NMEE difficult to achieve. Because of deficiencies of the establishment of a common scale of language ability, the definitions of "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability for NMEE are bound to be clear, especially its dimensionalities and parameters in order to improve the testing quality of phonological perception ability and build a common scale of phonological perception ability for NMEE.Based on the theory of Cognitive Processing Ability of Discourse Information and Communicative Language Ability and the methods of Raters’Consistency and Factor Analysis, this study is designed to investigate the reliability of elements and dimensionalities of "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability which are constructed according to NMEE Volumes. It aims to answer the following two questions:(1) with what elements will "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE be described and assessed?(2) in what dimensionalities will "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE be described and assessed? It intends to find some evidence to support "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE as a valid and effective way of testing phonological perception ability of testers. This thesis takes100senior high students who come from Zhounan Middle School in Changsha as research subjects and NMEE Volumes (1987-2012) from the start of item-writing autonomy of NMEE and SPSS as research instruments. First10raters are invited to rate on "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE, and rater consistence is analyzed. Then students rate their phonological perception ability based on the combination of NMEE Volumes and "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE. Finally the data collected by the above-mentioned methods are put into SPSS for Factor Analysis.According to the data results, the conclusion can be made as follows:(1) elements of "Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE are involved in vowels, consonants, rules of phonological combination, patterns of stress and intonation, ect;(2)"Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE are described and assessed in two dimensionalities:one is segmental perception ability and the other is suprasegmental perception ability;(3)"Can-do" statements of phonological perception ability of NMEE in the scale are reasonable to assess phonological perception ability of testers of NMEE. Because of the limitations of data collection, the validation of the scale should be further testified. |
