大学英语四级考试阅读部分对中国大学生阅读能力反映的研究

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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background

College English Test Band 4 (CET 4) is one of the most influential examinations in

China, which covers almost every area in China. As a national examination, it is used to

examine non-English major students’ English level. CET 4, a criterion-related

norm-referenced test, is designed to examine whether the English level of students, who

have learned English in college for two years, can meet the English teaching

requirements of colleges put forward by the Ministry of Education.

As CET 4 is the most influential and important examination in China, the Ministry

of Education keeps modifying CET 4 in order to make the exam enhance the English

teaching level and improve students’ comprehensive ability of using English. It was first

arranged at the end of 1986, and formally implemented in 1987. It is to promote the

implementation of “College English Syllabus”; to measure college students’ ability of

using English in an objective and accurate way. In this way, CET 4 can be helpful to

improve the teaching quality of college English course. The pre-reformed CET 4

consists of four parts: listening, reading, vocabulary, as well as grammar and writing.

The proportion of each part is listening 20%, reading 40%, vocabulary 15%, grammar

and writing 25%. Its full score is 100, with the cut score being 60. Only the student who

reaches the cut score can be conferred a certificate.

In order to adapt to the new developments of high education, deepen the teaching

reform and further improve the teaching quality, in 2004, the Ministry of Education

decided to make drastic reform to CET 4 which has existed for 17 years. After reform,

the paper consists of listening, reading, comprehensive part (cloze, correction, question,

and translation) and writing. The proportion of each part is listening 35%, reading 35%,

comprehensive part 15%, writing 15%.The full score of CET 4 is 710, not the former

100. There exists no cut score. All test takers will get a score report after taking the

examination, which will clearly show the score of each part they get. The new form of

CET 4 was formally implemented in 2007. The reform of CET 4 has attracted much

attention from the society, the experts, the students and the teachers. Some expert say

A Study on the Reflection of Reading Component of CET4

on Chinese College Students’ Reading Ability

that as the new form of CET 4 confirms to the development of society and using new

testing theories, it will enhance college English education to the greatest extent.

However, some people say the reform of CET 4 is a change in form but not in content.

1.2 Research Significance

The reading part always covers a large proportion in CET 4, (40% before reform and

35% after reform), and this means the score of this part covers a large proportion of the

total score. Therefore, the reading part influences a lot on the students’ score of CET 4.

Companies always choose the students whose reading ability is better than others when

they want to recruit new staff. On the other hand, the reading ability becomes essential

when students need further study no matter in foreign countries or in native graduate

schools, because they have to read a lot of original foreign literature and materials or the

latest foreign research results.

In 1997, Huang Ping of Chongqing University conducted a survey on “the

importance of English to your work” in the companies of South-west China. Results

show 53.6% respondents put reading ability as the most important part of English ability.

Only 19% put oral English as the most important. In 2001, Fu Zhen of Zhejiang

University conducted a survey on “the influence of China’s entry into the WTO on

college English teaching and the forecast of needs” among 120 financial and trade

sectors of five cities in Zhejiang Province. Results show that in daily work, people use

reading ability more frequently than they use listening and speaking ability. The main

aim of learning English is to get professional knowledge. (taken from Gu Xiangdong

2003) Therefore, reading ability is widely accepted as an important component of

English proficiency.

In the present thesis, the author emphasizes on the reading part of CET 4 to analyze

whether this part can reflect students’ reading ability; whether it can distinguish the

students who have good reading ability from those who have poor reading ability.

Chapter One Introduction

1.3Research Questions

Although CET 4 provides test takers with score reports rather than the previous

passing certificates, the society gives as much attention to the CET 4 score as past. In

many cases, the society takes the score of CET 4 as a criterion to judge the English

teaching level of a school. Meanwhile, many employers consider the score of CET 4 as

a criterion which decides whether they can employ the student or not, because they

think the score of CET 4 can reflect the students’ English level and study ability. The

author of the present thesis would like to discuss the following questions and try to

solve them.

A. Are the scores of reading component correlated positively to the total scores of

CET 4?

B. Can the scores of reading component reflect students’ reading ability from the

standpoint of teachers?

C. Can the scores of reading component reflect students’ real reading ability from

the standpoint of students?

1.4 Thesis Configuration

The first part is an introduction, which covers the research background, research

significance and research questions.

The second part is literature review, which introduces the components of reading

ability; reading process; development of reading tests, methods of conducting reading

tests and previous study on reading component of CET 4.

The third part is study basis, which includes empirical basis on the development of

the teaching syllabus and the development of reading component in CET 4 Syllabus.

The fourth part is research implementation, which includes model for the present

research, research subjects, research procedure and research instruments. Students from

three schools in two cities were chosen as research objects. Questionnaire survey,

interviews and think-aloud experiments were conducted.

The fifth part is data analysis and discussion. Data of the experiments were

A Study on the Reflection of Reading Component of CET4

on Chinese College Students’ Reading Ability

collected and analyzed. Problems of CET 4 are tackled and suggestions on design of

CET 4 reading component are given.

The sixth part is conclusion. Answers to research questions and value of this

research are given. Limitation of the research and suggestion for future research are also

pointed out.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Components of Reading Ability

Many linguists have been studying the components of reading ability for many

years. They are committed to probing and analyzing what people have when they form

reading ability. Weir and Porter (1996) define reading ability as “unitary”, “bi-divisible”

and “multi-divisible” based on the nature of reading. (taken from Weir, Yang & Jin

2000:20) In the following part, these three views will be discussed in detail.

2.1.1 Unitary View

Goodman and Thorndike are two representatives holding the hypothesis of

unitary view. They put forward that language is acquired as a whole through

communication, communicative use of language is intrinsic in reading, and reading is

learned holistically as a meaning-making process (Goodman 1967, 1969; taken from

Cook & Bassetti 2005). The unitary view denotes the careful and subconscious reading

process of using skills to extract main ideas and details. One premise of this view is that

it is not possible to identify specific skills which can be built up in any hierarchical way

to produce an effective reader. This view is largely supported by the research of Lunzer

and Gardner (1979), who carried out a detailed study of secondary school children

reading in their first language. They found that there was no correlation between

generally effective reading and performance on a supposed hierarchy of different

sub-skills such as using phonetic analysis or perceiving a sequence of ideas. In fact they

were unable to identify a hierarchy of skills as such. What chiefly characterized

effective readers was an ability and willingness to reflect on what they were reading.

After the administration of a detailed series of tests, Lunzer and Gardner concluded that

reading comprehension was best described as a “unitary aptitude” (taken from Wallace

1992).

Zwick (1987) analyzed the reading data collected in the 1983-1984 National

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP set up groups of seemingly

dissimilar kinds of items, including items measuring general reading comprehension,

A Study on the Reflection of Reading Component of CET4

on Chinese College Students’ Reading Ability

items testing inference of word meanings from context, items having to do with

everyday reading skills, and essay items. He further argues that “both a full-information

factor analysis and a test of unidimensionality developed by Rosenbaum (1985)

supported the same conclusion: Despite their dissimilarities, the reading items used

could be regarded as measures of a single dimension” (taken from Cornoldi & Oakhill

1996:4).

220 German second graders who were learning to read their first language were

chosen by Rost and experimented on to find out if a differential assessment of reading

comprehension is possible. He gave “38 different reading tests, a spelling test, and a

speed-of-information processing test to them, and intercorrelated their results” (Rost

1989; taken from Cornoldi & Oakhill 1996:4). Rost’s study yielded 780 correlation

coefficients. 77% of the total variance was extracted and interpreted. The high

inter-correlations between various subtests which supposedly tested various subskills

indicated failure in operationalising different sub-skills in reading comprehension. His

experiments prove the reading items used could be regarded as measures of a single

dimension (Weir, Yang & Jin 2000).

2.1.2 Bi-divisible view

The bi-divisible view of reading denotes that the ability of reading consists of at

least two theoretically isolable and distinguishable factors: vocabulary and general

reading competence. It indicates the quick and conscious reading process of using

strategies for catching the meaning efficiently and quickly. A bi-divisible view of

reading has been evidenced in studies that extracted two factors. Examples include

Berkoff (1979), Carver (1992), Farr (1968), Guthrie & Kirsch (1987) and Weir & Porter

(1994). In these studies, what turned out to be the second factor apart from the general

reading competence is vocabulary. Weir and Porter (1994: 5) note that “the phenomenon

of vocabulary loading on a separate factor is not uncommon”. Quantitative evidence

(e.g., Berg 1973, Davis 1944, Rosenshine 1980, Spearritt 1972 etc.) suggests that in

general it may not be consistently possible to identify multiple, separate reading skill

components, “there does seem to be a strong case for considering vocabulary as a

component separate from reading comprehension in general” (Weir and Porter 1994: 5).

On this basis, Weir, Yang and Jin (2000: 22) argue that “if some putative skills and

strategies function in a statistically similar manner, and so load fairly heavily on one

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摘要：

ChapterOneIntroduction1ChapterOneIntroduction1.1ResearchBackgroundCollegeEnglishTestBand4(CET4)isoneofthemostinfluentialexaminationsinChina,whichcoversalmosteveryareainChina.Asanationalexamination,itisusedtoexaminenon-Englishmajorstudents’Englishlevel.CET4,acriterion-relatednorm-referencedtest,isdes...

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