An Exploratory Study Of Incorporating Culture Test Into English Language Test

An important goal of foreign language teaching and learning is to help students develop their intercultural communicative competence (ICC). This thesis aims to promote teaching and learning of culture by incorporating culture test into English language test. Culture test has rarely been studied in the language testing field, and this thesis intends to explore a feasible way of incorporating culture test into language test. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in the study.The thesis consists of five main parts. The first part addresses the significance of culture test in language testing. In the second part, the author has an overview of culture teaching and learning in China for the past years; a survey is conducted among 72 students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University to obtain information about their intercultural sensitivity. The results show that students'intercultural sensitivity, on average, is at medium level of Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) developed by Chen and Staros. This from one aspect indicates the necessity of culture testing. The third part is literature review, in which the relationship between language testing and culture testing is explored. In the fourth part, an empirical study, designed and constructed by the author, was conducted to validate the culture test. 50 students took the test. To validate the culture test, both CET-4 scores and their ISS scores are employed in data analysis. The fifth part is the conclusion of the thesis.The findings of the study show that incorporating culture testing into English language testing is necessary and feasible, and is expected to produce a positive washback on language teaching and learning.The limitations and recommendations for further research are addressed. It is hoped that more attentions will be paid to the culture test by test developers.