On Specialized English Testing--How To Design An Achievement Test For Non-English Major Postgraduate

Testing is an area in which a great deal of research has still to be done. Much the same holds true in specialized English courses, especially postgraduate specialized English course, in which students study English to meet professional or occupational needs. In most postgraduate specialized English courses students' performance has been evaluated by translating a piece of English passage extracted from magazine. The drawback of this kind of evaluation is that translation alone cannot represent students' overall required language proficiency in specialized English, because the required language proficiency consists of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, translating and writing. The author holds the view that a postgraduate specialized English test should include listening, speaking, reading, writing as well. This thesis discusses approaches and criteria for constructing a specialized English test. The construction of one test usually involves the combination of several approaches as well as the consideration of validity, reliability and practicality. The whole constructing process is presented by constructing an achievement specialized test for business and management postgraduate. This process consists of defining the purpose of the test, considering test takers, writing test specifications, writing test tasks and scoring key, pre-testing, etc.