Unbearable Heaviness Of Language Testing

In contemporary China, a country in a frenzy of examinations, foreign language testing has been getting unparalleled attention as well as controversy. Language testers dedicate themselves to the improvement of intrinsic quality of validity and reliability, but hardly can they control the abuse of language testing results in the outside society. The researches on language testing are mostly focused on psychometric contents and washback effects, but rarely on the social dimension. This is partly due to the deep root of language testing in psychometric and cognitive resources, and partly due to the lack of powerful and effective sociological theory to cover this peripheral field.This research reviews the considerations about the social dimensions in the field of language testing, as well as theories on language testing in peripheral fields such as sociology and psychology. By doing so, the author tries to find a convergence of these disciplines on the social issues of language testing. In addition, the research also reviews relevant empirical studies at home and abroad.Based on these theoretical and empirical reviews, this study explores the social dimensions of language testing by conducting a case study of CET-4 in China. Specifically, this study investigates how the correlated policy between CET-4 certificate and degree diploma influences students'and teachers'perceptions, behaviors, and results in relation to CET-4. This research was carried out in four universities of similar academic ranks, teachers'professional qualifications, and students'admittance requirements, with two of the four schools retaining the"linked"policy, while the other two canceling such a policy. Using a mixed methods approach, the author conducted the study by engaging three groups of participants. Key-deciders of CET-4 test-use policy in these four universities were interviewed for their rationales behind the decisions. Eight hundred students in these four universities were surveyed and interviewed for their perceptions of and preparations for CET-4. Eight college English teachers were observed and interviewed for data from this group of stake-holders. CET-4 results of the researched students in two universities were also collected in Sep. 2008, after the scores were officially issued.Data collected from the student's questionnaire is analyzed by SPSS 13.0, to explore whether students in varied test-use contexts hold distinct perceptions and take different preparing activities in relation to CET-4. Interviews with policy-makers and observations of English classrooms are also reported in the thesis.At the end of the thesis, results obtained from the data triangulation are put together, to draw the whole picture of how test-use policy in the educational system influences stakeholders'perceptions, behaviors, and results of a large-scales language testing. The relationship between the present research and the previous conceptual theories are also discussed, on the basis of which an illustration of language testing in society is drawn.