A Validation Of CET And A Proposal Of A University-based Communicative Test

In order to meet the needs of modern era for qualified staff, college English teaching is shifting its traditional teaching method to a communicative approach. As a major means assessing language teaching, has language testing made the change as well? Investigation shows that in many colleges and universities where communicative teaching approach is being practiced, the terminal assessment is College English Test (GET), and that many employing units consider highly the certificate of GET as an indicator of adequate English competence. Is GET a valid measure for candidates' foreign language competence?Based on the theories of language teaching and language testing, and an investigation into the situation of college English teaching and testing in China, this thesis attempts to validate GET for the purpose of testing candidates' communicative competence, upon which a university-based communicative test is proposed.This thesis consists of six chapters:Chapter one introduces the states of the art of communicative teaching and testing, the purpose of this study and the significance of this study.Chapter two presents the relevant theories concerning the history of English language testing, the relationship between language teaching and language testing, and the ways of validating a test. Based on the relationship between language teaching and language testing, in order to reflect the results of a certain teaching approach, a certain test is to be 4eveloped. Therefore, a communicative test is needed to assess students' communicative competence. Whether a test truly reflects the students' communicative competence mainly depends on the validity of the test. A test with high validity can also bring beneficial backwash on teaching.Chapter three is an investigation into the states of the art of collegeEnglish teaching and testing, which shows that the belated development of communicative testing has inadequate beneficial backwash on communicative teaching, and the misuse of GET has hindered the impact of communicative teaching.Chapter four is the center of this study. According to the notion of communicative competence and the features of communicative tests, GET is validated from different perspectives for testing students' communicative competence. Obviously, though the validity of it has been proved, GET, which is limited by its large scale, is not an appropriate test for the purpose of testing communicative competence.Chapter five presents the proposal of a university-based test to fit the communicative teaching approach. Now that CET is improper for testing students' communicative competence, and that there is not a feasible test available, can we establish a university-based communicative test? The teaching material, the teaching approach, the teaching equipment, and the teaching stuff all provide feasibility for establishing a university-based communicative test.Chapter six is the conclusion, which declares that the validation of CET is to see whether it is appropriate for testing students' communicative competence, and since the university-based communicative test has not been tried out yet, it is an area for further study.