A Comparative Study On The Reading Comprehension Subtests Of The New CET4, The Old CET4 And IELTS

CET4, a widely used English test in China has already exerted great influence on non-English major students in China's colleges. It is estimated that more than 10,000,000 people take this test every year, and the test result plays a decisive role in students'further study or even in their employment when they enter society.With the transition of College English teaching from the traditional teaching to communicative teaching, the measurement has changed from the second period of language testing, that is, the structuralist approach to communicative approach. However, it turns out that the traditional CET4, to some extent, still remains in the period of structuralist approach. Thus the new CET4 with new testing techniques appeared in 2006.But little evidence is presented to prove its effectiveness in testing students'communicative ability. Due to the limitation of space and energy, here in this study, only the reading subtest of CET4 is focused on, and the purpose of this study is to find out, with some evidence, the communicative nature and the backwash effects of the reading subtest of the new CET4 on reading teaching and learning.In order to conduct this study with high effectiveness and efficiency, a variety of research methods are employed, such as the administration of three reading subtests, a detailed comparison of these three reading subtests, a questionnaire with students and an interview with teachers. Consequently, both qualitative data and quantitative data are gathered for a detailed analysis. Conclusions are finally drawn that the reading subtest of the new CET4 does test candidates'reading ability in a communicative way, but compared with IELTS– the specimen of communicative test, there is still room for improvement, and that the new CET4 exerts beneficial backwash effects on reading teaching and learning.Detailed suggestions are put forward for the improvement of the new CET4 reading subtest. The author proposes that text genres and topics should be enriched, non-linear texts should be kept, testing techniques should be diversified, and each MC question should have the same weight as any other reading question.It is hoped that the findings and suggestions made by this present study will contribute to the improvement of CET4 with beneficial backwash effects, and finally promote the college English education in China.