A Comparative Study Of The Papers Of High-level Listening Tests Between The Old And New Hsk

HSK is a nation-level standardized language test specifically designed for non-native speakers of Chinese (Liu Yinglin,2008). It was developed by the HSK Center of Beijing Language and Culture University. In November2009, Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters launched the new Chinese Proficiency Test (referred to as the new HSK, the old HSK referring to the one developed by Beijing Language and Culture University). Currently, both the old and new HSK are professional and authoritative Chinese language tests.In order to satisfy Chinese teachers and learners’needs to learn the similarities and differences between the old and new HSK and also to keep improving the tests, this thesis, from the perspective of listening test and by means of choosing the listening materials of the highest level of both tests [old HSK (Advanced) and new HSK (Sixth Level)] as samples, aims to explore the differences and similarities of the listening tests from various aspects after a general introduction and comparison of factors affecting systems of the old and new HSK. This is the first systematic comparative study of the old and new HSK.This thesis consists of four main parts:in the introduction, the author states the significance of the study, research design and methodology and literature review. The literature review includes the nature of listening comprehension, what constitutes listening ability, factors affecting listening comprehension and an overview of listening research. The second part is a general and introductive contrast of the test system of old and new HSK, mainly including theoretical basis, examination principles, test standards, lexical syllabus and at last an overall comparison of the highest level tests of old and new HSK. The analysis results are as follows:(1) the old HSK follows the principle of "separation of test and teaching", while the new HSK relates test to textbook.(2) The old HSK is generally a psychometric-structuralist approach to language testing, while the new HSK test aims to be a communicative performance testing.(3) The old HSK strictly abides by the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards and Syllabus, which promises a certain degree of difficulty; the new HSK test is designed in accordance with the National Chinese Language Proficiency Scales for Speaker of Other Languages, featuring communicative and task-based items.(4) The vocabulary requirement of the new HSK is much lower than the old HSK; the new HSK vocabulary levels up gradually, but each level of the old HSK contains a great deal of words and the lower limit is relatively difficult to reach; the old HSK contains some outdated words and a great deal of written vocabulary. The new HSK increases oral vocabulary and updated words, and the vocabulary is classified with the aim of meeting actual needs of Chinese learners; the entry segmentation of the old HSK should be more helpful for students ro memorioze words, and that of the new HSK is not precise enough.(5) In the highest level test, the old HSK features more items and diverse item types. The new HSK reflects characteristics of communicative test by increasing integrated test items, and it puts more emphasis on listening and speaking.The third part, also the key part, compares the two listening tests from the sample papers of the old HSK (Advanced) and new HSK (Sixth Level) mainly from the following four aspects:item type, item design, compliance with the syllabus and text difficulty. The thesis reaches the following conclusions:(1) the item type of the old HSK test is more reasonable in that it is designed to test more advanced listening skills but in amount and depth.(2) In general, the old and new HSK cover a wide range of listening skills, but in terms of individual material, both tests need to improve the diversity of tested skills.(3) Understanding of direct meaning is over tested in both tests, while the ability to understand indirect meaning especially implied meaning is rarely tested. The new HSK increases questions targeted at communicative ability. The ability to summarize or conclude is neglected in the dialogue parts in both tests. Skills tested in both tests should be more balanced.(4) The new HSK contains a lot of invalid interferent choices.(5) Both tests cover a wide variety of topics. Topics of the new HSK are more general, diverse, interesting and useful, while it is more difficult to understand topics of the old HSK for they aim to test students’horizon and ability to understand sophisticated topics.(6) The degree of compliance with the syllabus and text difficulty of the old HSK listening test are higher than that of the new HSK listening test.Based on the above results, the author reaches the following conclusions:(1) The old and new HSK show differences in targeted test-takers, testing principles, resulting in differences in their test designs, topic characteristics, lexical syllabi and test difficulties.(2) The old HSK is generally more mature and difficult in terms of question design, skills tested, topic variety, compliance with the syllabus and text difficulty.(2) The new HSK exhibits such advantages as communication-oriented selection and classification of vocabulary, communication-oriented and interesting topics and emphasis on listening and speaking and understanding of implied meaning. All of these are in consistent with its theoretical basis and task-based principle and reflect its communicative and encourageous features.(3) There are some shortcomings in both the old and new HSK such as low proportion of indirect meaning understanding ability and the ability to summarize and conclude, unbalanced selection of listening skills, low degree of compliance with the syllabus and lack of idiomatic or set phrases.Finally, the author puts forward recommendations for Chinese listening test and teaching, and then restates innovation and limitation of the study.