| This thesis intends to introduce a new format桬nglish Reading Proficiency Computer Adaptive Testing (ERP CAT), for the assessment of reading proficiency of ESL/EFL readers.Chapter One gives a brief induction of the whole thesis. Chapter Two offers the two theories that make the ERP CAT program possible: the schema theory and the theory of computer adaptive testing. According to schema theory, all knowledge is packaged in the brain units, called schemata (Rumelhurt I 98O)~ embedded in these units of knowledge is information on how the knowledge is used. Schema theory explains how these structures are formed and related to each other when individual learns. When individual reads they use their schema to construct meaning from written texts. The part of computer adaptive testing mainly deals with the advantages and disadvantages of CAT, the four CAT categories, and it emphasizes the two principles underlying CAT桰tem Response Theory and Item Banking. Chapter Three presents an overall description of the ERP CAT series, involving the software. its multi-stage format, the selection of its materials, the characteristics of its tasks, its scoring principles, the reporting facility and the procedure of taking the test. In order to study the usefulness and effectiveness of ERP CATs, Chapter Four makes some investigations on their validity and reliability, based on the data collected from the five ERP CATs taken in the English Department of CNU. On the results of the investigations, this chapter also discusses and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of this testing program, and then provides some suggestions for its future development, and at the same time gives some advice for the teachers of ESL/EFL reading. The last chapter reviews the foregoing chapters and concludes that combining the new ERP CAT format with the prevailing prose-question type of reading tests may lead to more satisfactory and ideal assessment of ESL/EFL reading proficiency.
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