The Validity and Reliability Analysis of English Test For Harbin NO.3 High School

ZhaoYuxin

Language testing is a vital method in testing and teaching. It had been frequently used by foreign language teachers and scholors in language testing. Analyzing and researching the data， teachers are able to work scientifically and sufficiently. Paper should be well designed for precisely and sufficiently assessing the effect of teaching and learning. A good testing paper would have the characteristics of high reliability and validity. Thus the purpose of the present study is to examine the quality of an English test paper in junior middle school according to the language test theories. The test paper is design as the second test of the semester for grade 2 students. To achieve the test paper in the class as the material of the present study.

1. Literature Review

1.1 A Brief Introduction to the Test Paper

The test paper is composed of four parts. There are the objective and the subjective， The full mark of the test is 150. The time for the test is 120 minutes. But there is no speci-fication time for each part. To achieve the purpose of the present study designed the following questions：Form the descriptive analysis perspective， how to interpret the test paper？ To what extent is the test valid？ To what extent is the test reliability？

1.2 The Definition of Testing Validity

Validity is an extent to which a test measures what it claims or intends or supposes to measure， or the extent to which the result of a test of a group of test takers associate with a particular criterion . From Validity as test—criterion correlation， validity consisting of different types：face validity， predictive validity， concurrent validity， construct validity， content validity. Face validity means whether the test looks like what it is supposed to test . So it is also called surface credibility or public acceptability. Direct tests have higher face validity than indirect tests. Qualitative measures are used to determine the face validity of a test， such as public opinion and expert judgment. Predicative validity， to some extent， the test can predict the students performance in future.The two tests under comparison should have a time span . As far as placement test is concerned， predictive validity is very important（werir， 1990）.

1.3 Testing Subjects

The objective part accounts for 120 points， the.subjective one account for 30 points. The latter is only one fourth of the former. The objective part are multiple-choice questions and completion items question. Whether the test can really test the comprehensive language—applying ability？ The following will focus on analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of this test paper. Reading comprehension is to test candidates context knowledge， background knowledge， language knowledge， orthography and candidates ability to distinguish between non—central idea and central idea and details， and to synthesize comprehensive information from all paragraphs， and identify concept and viewpoints.endprint

2. Analysis of Validity

I will analyze the whole paper， the surface is very clear， clear text description， font size and font spacing are appropriate， and there is no ambiguous options. The content of the test paper is a comprehensive study of the five aspects of language skills， language knowledge， emotional attitudes， learning strategies and cultural awareness of the students.（ J.B.Heaton， 2000）.

2.1 Listening

The first part is listening， mainly for the detection of listening skills， test papers from easy to difficult to set the topic， first of all， it tests dialogue listening， and then tests paragraph listening. In this respect， the design of the test paper is basically reasonable in the listening part. The listening part does not pay attention to the three aspects of students emotion attitude， learning strategies and cultural awareness. This will lead to the neglect of these three aspects in the teaching of listening. The content validity of the listening part shows that the purpose of the test is not clear.

2.2 Reading

The second part is reading comprehension， which is a comprehensive examination of reading skills. Reading comprehension examines the reading skills of students， including understanding the meaning of new words， understanding the logical relationship of sentences， looking for meanings of birth words， understanding the plot， predicting development and ending， and using strategies to obtain information. This part examines vocabulary， grammar and topic knowledge in language knowledge， and examines cultural awareness goals.

2.3 Language knowledge

The third part is the use of English language knowledge， including cloze and grammatical fill in the blanks， by requiring students to complete the incomplete language fragments to test the language knowledge of the students. Ask the students to do the following aspects according to context and word formation in reading skills：（1） to infer and understand the meaning of new words； （2） to understand the logical relationship between each sentence in the paragraph， the subject； （3） understand the plot of the story， and predict the likely outcome； （4） according to different reading purposes by using simple reading strategies to obtain information. This part focuses on the students reading skills and vocabulary and grammar knowledge， the selected text topic and student life closely and difficulty with students level of words， part of the topic to examine the emotion and attitude goals.The main problem is that the learning strategies and cultural goals have not been examined. The multiple-choice cloze can be used to test the reading comprehension that is easy to score.endprint

2.4 Writing

The last part is the writing section， including error correction and composition writing， the writing of the students comprehensive ability to use the language of the test， only from the papers， writing part can reflect the test subject knowledge and skills. “English curriculum standard” requires students to reach the level of writing skills：（1） according to the requirements of the composition， to collect materials； （2） independently drafte essays， messages， and modified under the guidance of teachers； （3） can use conjunctions to express order or logical relation； （4） can describe people and events simply； （5） can write simple operation according to instructions.

This composition requires students write to friends in the United States in order to correct his bad habits. It is a type of letters. It examines the students whether can describe the events by using simple sentence， and put forward the suggestions， and have closely logical relationship.

3. The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Test Paper

This paper has disadvantages as well as advantages. Then the author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the test paper

3.1 The Advantages of the Test Paper

The advantage of the test paper are that：（1） Testing content is representative. Each of the questions in the test paper is provided with one or two test points to examine the students. （2） Test content conforms to the level of the student level. the language skills and language knowledge in the test can design topics according to the actual level of the students. Whats more， the method， length and speed of the test all conform to the students level. It plays a positive role in the content validity and construct validity of the test. （3）the test has a clear scoring standard. It ensures the fairness and justice of the test score， and plays a positive role in ensuring the structure validity of the test.

3.2 The Disadvantages of the Test Paper

The purpose of the test is to test the language skills and language knowledge of the students. From a macro perspective， the contents include the listening， reading， writing three skills. At the same time to examine the students language knowledge， but do not set the topic test students oral English skills. And there is no specific questions test students learning mastery strategy. From a microcosmic point of view， the subject of the test covers incomplete. The listening focuses on testing part of the students listening skills without examining all aspects of the students listening skills. But as a whole， the effect of all paper test of this paper is successful.endprint

4. Conclusion

For the problems existing in this study， the author needs further study in the future. On the one hand， it is more convincing to prepare early studies， collect more comprehensive data on tests， and conduct a comprehensive validation study on tests. On the other hand， the research method can be combined with questionnaires and interviews. It can know of more teachers understanding for test reliability and test validity， in order to solve the existing problems of recognition for teachers， to help teachers improve the theoretical knowledge and practice， to make the majority of teachers participates the study of English test.

References：

[1]Werir，C 1990 Communicative Language Testing[M].New York： Prentice Hall Chapter4：Test Methods，42-79.

[2]J.B.Heaton.Writing English Language Tests[M].2000，8.

[3]Arthur Hughes.Testing for Language Teachers[M].Cambridge Language Teaching Library，2005.

[4]黃大勇，楊炳均.語言測試的反撥效應研究概述[J].外語教學與研究，2002.

[5]劉潤清，韓寶成.外語測試和它的方法（修訂版）[M].外語教學與研究出版社，2000.endprint