A Research On Content Validity Of English Reading Comprehension In The Senior High School Entrance Examination Of Guiyang

Validity is an important concept in language testing and the most fundamental consideration in the development and evaluation of tests.Validity usually concerns whether a test or any part of the test can accurately measure what needs to be measured.While the content validity which has a close relationship with the content of a test concerns whether the testing content can accurately measure what needs to be measured and whether the content of the test is comprehensive and representative.Thus only a test with high content validity can accurately test the content that needs to be tested.The purpose of the test task characteristics framework proposed by Bachman＆Palmer（1996）is to provide a basis for language testing and use,and the framework describes the characteristics of test tasks in detail from five aspects.Therefore,based on the framework,a suitable framework for analyzing the characteristics of English reading comprehension in the Senior High School Entrance Examination of Guiyang from 2012 to 2021 is designed.Then combined with the requirements of English Curriculum Standard of Compulsory Education（2011 edition）,the Instructions for Academic Test for the Junior High School Students of English in Guiyang,and the English Teaching Syllabus of the Nine-year Compulsory Education,a validating framework for analyzing the content validity of reading comprehension tests from2012 to 2021 is designed.A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods is adopted to solve the following two research questions:（1）What are the main characteristics of the English reading comprehension in the Senior High School Entrance Examination of Guiyang（2012-2021）from the perspectives of the characteristics of input and expected response as well as the relationship between input and response?（2）How is the content validity of English reading comprehension in the Senior High School Entrance Examination of Guiyang（2012-2021）from the perspectives of the characteristics of input and expected response as well as the relationship between input and response? Through the analysis and study of the ten-year tests,the following conclusions can be drawn:Firstly,in terms of the characteristics of input and expected response,the forms of presentation of the English reading articles of the Senior High School Entrance Examination in Guiyang are relatively rich;the length of the articles and the quantity of new vocabulary are both within a reasonable range,the genres as well as topics of articles are abundant,and the item types are fixed.However,the indexes of readability are relatively higher,thus the overall difficulty of reading materials is relatively lower.Besides,the proportion of the coverage of reading skills tested is unbalanced.Secondly,in terms of its content validity,the content validity of the forms of presentation,length of the articles,the quantity of new vocabulary,genres,topics,and item types of the English reading comprehension in the Senior High School Entrance Examination of Guiyang is relatively high;while the content validity of the readability of articles is at a normal level;but the testing of reading skills is not comprehensive and balanced,thus the content validity of the coverage of reading skills is relatively low.Therefore,the content validity of the reading tests is comparatively high on the whole.Based on the exploration of research questions above,some referential implications and suggestions for the test proposers,junior high school English teachers,and junior high school students are provided.