A Study On Culture Testing Of English Subject In Senior High School

In July, 2001, the Ministry of Education of China put forward for the first time the culture awareness as one of the goals in English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School, which highlighted the evaluation on English learning and teaching. Since then, attention has been drawn to the role culture teaching plays in senior high school English learning and teaching, and the importance of the backwash of evaluating culture teaching.The thesis aims at exploring some relevant issues of culture testing-- the evaluating tool of culture teaching in senior high school. Based on the survey of the current situation of culture teaching and culture testing of English subject in senior high school, results were found that it was difficult to evaluate the attainment of the goal of cultural awareness highlighted by English Curriculum Standards and there was no yardstick for measuring English learners'cultural competence resulting from English teachers'lack of the related theory and practice of culture testing and the consequent disjunction between culture teaching and culture testing to some degree. Therefore, it was necessary and important to conduct culture tests in English language testing in senior high school.On the basis of the overview of culture testing at home and abroad, a conceptual framework of culture testing in senior high school was constructed. The contents to be included in culture tests were listed in the framework. Then a set of culture tests was designed on the basis of English Curriculum Standards and the conceptual framework.In order to examine the validity and the reliability of the culture test, an empirical study was carried out on 165 subjects. The statistical results showed that the culture test had high reliability and validity, and there were significant correlations among the sections of the culture test and between the culture test and NMET. The success of the culture test in return to some degree proved that the framework constructed by the author did work and could be used by English teachers in English learning and teaching practice of senior high school.Conclusions were drawn that culture testing could not only serve as a tool to evaluate the attainment of the goal of cultural awareness and English learners'cultural competence, but also contributed to English learners'performances in NMET and their intercultural communicative competence with its backwash. Some suggestions were also raised for further study at the end of the thesis.