A Tentative Study On The Design Of English Online Diagnostic Listening Test

Testing is an essential part in language teaching. According to different purposes, language testing can be divided into: a diagnostic test, proficiency test, aptitude test, and placement test. Diagnostic test is more closely related to teaching compared with other kinds of test. If well designed, it can provide teachers with detailed feedback, so it has great significance in language teaching and learning. At present, the diagnostic test doesn't attract sufficient attention. Particularly in China, the development of diagnostic tests is not satisfactory, so it is especially important to develop it. In addition, the listening ability is an important component in language skills. With the development of computers and networks, in various kinds of public tests at home and abroad, many listening tests try to use the online form. There is tendency that the traditional listening tests have been gradually replaced by online listening test.In this thesis, the notion of diagnostic online listening test is proposed based on the characteristics and present status of diagnostic test and online listening test. This notion of combining the merits of the two kinds of tests into one is innovative to some extent. Dwell on the basis of the theory, a new online listening test system—the online diagnostic listening test is designed under the cooperation with the network engineer. This system is based on LAN or internet and has such features as easy operation, quick operation of the feedback, and adoption to the classroom teaching and so on. In this thesis, this system is used in a compared experiment and the results data are analyzed to prove the feasibility of the notion.There are three main research methods used in this thesis: (1) the study of theoretical basis: this method is used to find the significance and the prospects of the diagnostic listening test;(2) under the guidance of the theoretical foundation, exploratory experiments is done to design of the system V1.0 in cooperation with the computer programmer;(3) the sample testing and analysis of the data are conducted in order to verify the feasibility of this system.The results of the study prove that when compared with traditional listening tests, online diagnostic test has more timely diagnosis and fast and accurate feedback from the examination of information; teachers can make timely adjustments based on feedback and improve the quality of teaching. Although it has some limitations, online diagnostic listening test system is still a means of testing which has great prospect of development and application.The thesis is mainly divided into six parts. The first chapter is the introduction which introduces the present situation and the layout of this paper; following that are the brief review of the traditional test theory and discussing of the diagnostic test and online listening test respectively on whose basis the notion of online diagnostic listening test is proposed; the third chapter states the theory of test design and discusses the traditional design of the listening test. The elements which affect the online diagnostic listening tests are discussed based on the former bases; the forth part introduces the Online Diagnostic Listening Test System v1.0 and an experiment is made to verify its feasibility; the fifth chapter includes discussing the validity and reliability of the experiment tests, and using SPSS to analyze the data of the experiment; and the final part highlights the advantages and limitations of the diagnostic test and looks forward to the future development of the language tests.