Validation Study Of The Computer-Mediated Oral English Test In Our University

In recent years, more emphasis in universities in China has been placed on the teaching of oral English. The society needs more university graduates with the ability to take part in oral interaction of various kinds in English. Therefore, in order to conform to the current requirement of the language teaching and the society, in 2004 our university decided to organize COET (Computer-mediated Oral English Test), a syllabus-oriented English oral test which is intended to evaluate the oral English proficiency of non-English majors in our university. The COET has been carried out twice so far and it is high time that we conducted a study to find out to what extent the COET is valid, reliable and practical.By analyzing our subjects' scores and conducting the questionnaire surveys by means of SPSS (11.0 version), we study in great detail the COET on its validity, reliability, practicality as well as backwash effects. Since the COET is a kind of semi-direct oral test, the comparability between COET and OPI (face-to-face Oral Proficiency Interview) which is a direct oral test is investigated.The study reveals that COET, being reliable and valid, is much more practical in scoring and administering than OPI. The COET produces positive backwash effects upon teachers and learners. But still it needs some improvement. As there are 3000 students taking the test every time, we think it is worthwhile to adopt COET in our university to evaluate the students' oral ability. But we also suggest that before COET is formally conducted, it is better to carry out a pre-test training to ensure that each candidate is familiar with the test. Therefore, the test will measure more effectively what it is intended to measure. And it is quite desirable to add the form of role-play in the test to enable the candidates have interaction while taking the COET.