ABSTRACT
College English Test (CET), as one of the largest English tests in China, has been in
existence for more than two decades, during which period debates over it and reforms of
it have been constantly going on. The recent reform is the most fundamental, but with
heated debates around as ever. Since the issue of the College English Curriculum
Requirements (for trial implementation) in 2004, reform on CET has been under way. In
June 2006, the new CET-4 made its first appearance, and was carried out in the 180
selected trial schools. Hereafter, articles about the new CET-4 have been proliferating.
However, a comprehensive comparability study between the new CET-4 and the old one
has seldom been carried out, especially on the true effects it brings. Hence, the author
attempts to conduct the present research.
To conduct this comparability study, the author adopted such instruments as two test
papers, a questionnaire, and a rating scale. The test papers of June 2006 were chosen for
the prototype tests, and two classes of first-year students of Henan University of Finance
and Economics were chosen as sample subjects. Based on the subjects’ responses to the
questionnaire and rating scale, and their performances of the two sample tests, various
statistical analyses were carried out, including reliability analysis, correlation analysis,
and paired-samples ttests, etc., on the basis of which the following conclusions were
drawn:
First, results of the two tests bear little correlation. With a view to the changes in
contents and weighting, it can be said that the abilities tested have changed to a big
extent, which will affect test performance of students with different abilities.
Second, the questionnaire survey shows that students have a strong preference to
objective test tasks, but this preference doesn’t affect their actual performances
significantly in these two types of tasks: subjective and objective.
Third, the change of procedure of Writing has a big influence upon students’ mind,
and students tend to render better performance in Writing when it is processed in the
beginning of the test which is the case of the new CET-4.
Fourth, the questionnaire and test results show that students are used to the newly
added Skimming and Scanning and Translation.
Fifth, it is found out through item analysis that Listening Comprehension of both
tests has big problems in terms of reliability, facility value and discrimination index.
Cloze of the new CET-4 is better than that of the old one in that fewer items are