The Communicative English Testing Framework For Students At Primary Stage

Based on the theories of communicative language testing, this thesis mainly attempts to analyze the relationship between language testing and language teaching, and tentatively puts forward the communicative English testing framework for students at primary stage with the assistance of investigation and research on the current primary English testing in China via questionnaires, interviews as well as consultations of available literature concerned. The objective of this suggested framework is expected to break through the traditional English tests which are merely centered on language knowledge itself and thus to focus on the comprehensive assessment of language knowledge, language skills, learning strategies, cultural awareness and affect in the communicative environment. At the same time, this proposed framework is supposed be a comprehensive optimization of academic achievement, learning capacity, quality of thinking, cultural awareness and the perfection of personality. This thesis makes a quantitative and qualitative research on the improvement of the validity of the current primary English testing so as to bring about some positive backwash on English teaching and encourage pupils to further improve their overall language competence and communicative abilities, especially for speaking and listening abilities. Elaborated analysis of the reliability and validity by using language testing and some statistical methods will provide the theoretical guidance to the improvement on primary English testing.Featuring with authentic and communicative testing tasks, the communicative English testing framework for students at primary stage emphasizes on the assessment of pupils'comprehensive language competence. Additionally, this testing framework attempts to create language testing situation as authentic as possible to stimulate pupils to demonstrate what they have learnt as if they were in that authentic situation. Besides, with the class-based testing model, teachers and pupils could express their meanings freely and have an interactive and communicative testing by means of body language, objects, pictures, computers, drawings and so on.In accordance with the aforementioned the communicative English testing framework for students at primary stage, chapter one gives a general introduction of the accomplishments achieved in English testing at primary stage and figures out the problems unsolved in this field. Chapter two, based on the theoretical explorations and in line with the underpinnings of communicative language testing, illustrates the necessity and possibility of constructing the communicative language testing for students at primary stage. Under the guidance of the new National English Curriculum Standards, chapter three compares several currently prevailing English tests at primary stage, such as the National English Achievement Test and the Cambridge Young Learners English Tests, and comes up with an analysis of problems existing in traditional English tests at the primary stage. In chapter four, from a developmental perspective, based on a wealth of investigation into the status quo of primary English testing, and in line with the characteristics of pupils'cognitive and linguistic abilities, the general communicative English testing framework for students at primary stage has been tentatively put forward, supported and substantiated by some subframeworks illustrating"what"and"how"to test in four modalities of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The last chapter concludes by conducting a recapitulation in the previous chapters, and examines the limitations of the present study.Being tentative and rather crude, this study is open to critical examinations, further reflection, improvement and validation both theoretically and empirically. It is hoped that, with the expounded knowledge of the complexity of English test, there would be more and more well-designed English tests oriented to pupils. So much so that, the prospective changes in English testing at primary stage can exert some positive washback effects on both English teaching and learning.