|
Abstract:
|
The College English Test (CET ) in China is the largest language test in the world . The number of CET test -takers has steadily increased from 100 ,000 for its first administration in 1987 to 13 million in 2006 . CET scores are used to draw inferences about the test -takers’ English as a foreign language proficiency as well as their specific skills in listening , speaking , reading , and writing . To justify the inferences drawn from test scores , evidence from a variety of sources should be constantly collected (Cronbach & Meehl , 1955 ; Messick , 1992 ; Chapelle , 1998 ; Bachman , 2000 ; Weir , 2005 ) .
Despite the large -scale and high -stakes nature of the CET and the importance of test validation , studies on the quality of the CET are scarce . This study aims to examine the construct validity of the reading comprehension section of the CET by modeling the internal relationships between test -takers’ scores on the CET reading section and their underlying reading abilities . Six components have been chosen as observed variables of the latent variable of reading ability , namely , word recognition efficiency , working memory , semantic knowledge , syntactic knowledge , discourse knowledge , and metacognitive reading skills . A pseudowords identification task programmed by the DMDX computer software , a revised version of Daneman & Carpenter’s (1980 ) sentence reading span working memory test , Meara & Milton’s (2002 ) Yes /No vocabulary tests , the syntactic test used in Shiotsu & Weir’s (2007 ) study , Abeywickrama’s (2007 ) discourse knowledge test , and a revised version of Phakiti’s (2008 ) strategy use questionnaire were utilized to measure these six observed variables .
A total of 181 Chinese undergraduates participated in the study . With a baseline confirmatory factor model of reading ability and the CET scores , a structural model was analyzed . The results indicated that the path from reading ability to test performance was .75 and the squared regression coefficient of test performance was .56 , which implied that participants’ test performance was strongly underlined by their actual reading ability . Therefore , the scores on the CET reading section are largely justifiable for use in drawing inferences about participants’ reading ability . Implications for validation research and reading instruction were also explored . |