The Validation Of Tianjin NMET From The Perspective Of Test Method Analysis

Since the file about deepening reform on examination and recruitment system was issued by the State Council in 2014,different provinces have taken steps to implement the reform.Changes happened to recruitment policies or the test papers.As one of the provinces which have the autonomous right to write the paper,Tianjin has carried out the reform of NMET in 2017.In this situation,it is necessary to study the validity of Tianjin NMET paper over the years so as to investigate the influence of the changes of NMET paper on teaching.Meanwhile,what changes happen in test method and content of Tianjin paper? Whether the test is relevant to and has covered the given content and ability stipulated by the test specifications,this is a question worth studying.It is very important to guide teaching correctly.Based on the previous studies about test validity,this paper aims to investigate the features of Tianjin NMET by comparing them with Beijing NMET and Shanghai NMET to provide the feedback on how to improve the test design to fit in with the requirement of the curriculum and the society.Three research questions are involved:What are the features of Tianjin papers over the past several years in NMET reform from the perspective of content validity?(2)What is the difference in test item design between Tianjin and Beijing and Shanghai in education?(3)What are teachers’ views on English teaching and Tianjin NMET reform? This study uses the Tianjin NMET papers from 2016 to 2020 as the research samples,and analyze the Tianjin NMET test papers over the years by using the framework of test method analysis,then compares the test content and methods to see the gap between Tianjin and other provinces that have the right to write the paper autonomously for NMET.The analysis shows that the test method and content of papers of Tianjin have not changed much over the years except providing one more opportunity for candidates,that is,reform is old wine in a new bottle.The washback effect on English teaching is not as expected.In addition,the interview data is analyzed using thematic analysis method,and the results prove that although high school teachers know the drawbacks of exam-oriented education,there is still a tendency to exam-oriented teaching,which cause the inconsistency between their teaching philosophy and behavior to some degree.Finally,based on the above research results,this study gives some reasonable suggestions for NMET reform in Tianjin: the oral test should be increased by test developer and taken into National College Entrance Examination rather than a reference;the listening test should be taken online and be not arranged at the same day;test format and content should be diverse;teachers should explore new teaching methods to effectively improve students’ language use ability.