A Construct Validation Of The Test Of English Reading-Writing Critical Thinking Skills For Junior School Students

As one of the four key literacies of English subject,the quality of thinking has caught the attention of many teachers.People start considering the way of combining critical thinking and English teaching.But in an assessment view,how to integrate critical thinking skills into the assessment of English subject in junior school?How to incorporate the assessment of English reading and writing and the assessment of critical thinking skills?Therefore,the aim of the present research is to create a standard for testing English reading-writing critical thinking skills,and then analyze the construct validity of a test of English reading-writing critical thinking skills for junior school students so as to figure out an effective way of combining the assessment of English reading and writing and the assessment of critical thinking skills.On the basis of the literature review of the definition of critical thinking skills and the characteristics of reading-writing test tasks,this study worked out the definition of English reading-writing critical thinking skills and the standard for assessment.Then,with reference to the level of junior students'English proficiency,we developed a test of English reading-writing critical thinking skills forjunior school students.After a pilot testing,the test was adjusted and revised and then a formal testing was administered.At the same time,a questionnaire for thinking skills was administered to the students who took the test of English reading-writing critical thinking skills for junior school students.Taking the questionnaire as a reference for analyzing,the correlation between the results of the two tests was conducted to examine the construct validity of the English reading-writing critical thinking skills test from the quantitative perspective.Finally,3 students were randomly selected from those taking the test to report their test-taking processes.Their reporting was recorded,transcribed,coded and analyzed to examine the agreement between students'test-taking processes and the expected critical thinking skills measured in every item of the test,verifying the construct validity of the test from the qualitative perspective.The results show that there is a significant correlation between students' performance on English reading-writing critical thinking skills test and the data from the questionnaire.And also,there is a high agreement rate between students' processes of test taking and the expected critical thinking skills measured in every item of the test.Conclusively,evidence from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives supports the claim that ideal construct validity is established for the test of English reading-writing critical thinking skills for junior school students developed in the present study.