A Corpus-Based Study Of The Content Validity Of NMET Reading Comprehension Tests

As one of the most influential nationwide language tests in China,the quality of developing National Matriculation English Test together with the test usefulness has always been widely concerned.With the issue and implementation of National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools,the reform of developing NMET has been gradually carried out.Because the reading comprehension section accounts for a great proportion in the total score of NMET,it can be seen that the validity of reading comprehension tests is closely related to the overall validity of NMET and reading comprehension has been the key element of NMET.Therefore,with the guidance of test usefulness framework,it is especially important to study the content validity of NMET reading comprehension tests under the fragmented view of validity.Based on Bachman and Palmer’s(1996)framework of language task characteristics and method on the analysis of test content proposed by Alderson and Bachman(2004),this thesis attempts to study the content validity of NMET reading comprehension tests from 1996 to 2019 from the perspectives of language characteristics of input and expected response through obtaining data by Coh-metrix 3.0 on-line software,doing the computation by SPSS,collecting evidences and making comparative analysis.The research shows:1)The content validity of NMET reading comprehension test is relatively high,and its form and content are basically within the requirements of National English Curriculum Standards;2)With the gradual upgrading of National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools,the length of reading comprehension text,the number of syllables in words and the proportion of content words used in the NMET reading comprehension tests show an increasing trend,while the values of the indices on word familiarity,readability,narrativity and cohesion of the texts used in tests are steadily declining.However,some challenges have also been found in the research,such as:1)There are many high or low meaningful differences shown in the texts of NMET 2003 reading comprehension test in comparison with other NMET tests during NMET(2003-2012)in terms of the indices on syllables length,word familiarity,sentence length,number of words before main verb,narrativity and Flesch reading ease score;2)The index values of reading comprehension texts are constantly changing,showing a trend of high or low and then falling back for adjustment;3)The response format of"multiple-choice question" is extensively used,which has many shortcomings and the questions related with low-level reading skills are too much focused in the NMET reading comprehension tests,such as the reading skills of "the understanding of the detailed information".Taking advantage of corpus and making use of Coh-metrix 3.0 on-line software,this thesis analyzed the characteristics of 212 NMET reading comprehension texts from 1996 to 2019 and studied the content validity of NMET reading comprehension tests related with the requirements of National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools and test syllabus.It will give teachers and students a better overview and understanding of NMET reading comprehension tests,which also provide the references for China’s English teaching and learning and foreign language testing.