A Study On The Validity Of The Internet-based CET-4Listening Subtest

Over the past decades, College English Test Band4(CET-4) has experienced several reforms, and the latest and biggest one is trail implementation of Internet-based CET-4. Internet-based CET-4and CET-4paper test are different in many aspects, such as test format, test content, question type, weighting distribution and scoring. The difference between listening subtests of the Internet-based CET-4and CET-4paper test are very obvious. Recent years have witnessed an evident increase in research on validity and washback of high-stake tests in the field of language teaching and testing. As the biggest innovation since the reform of CET in2006, the Internet-based CET-4has attracted much attention. Research on its backwash on teaching and learning has been popular in recent years. But few empirical studies have been conducted on the validity of the Internet-based CET-4.The present study explores the face validity and content validity of the Internet-based CET-4listening subtest through analysis on questionnaire and interview. The content validation is further conducted by a comparison between the Internet-based CET-4listening subtest and the College English Curriculum Requirements and the College English Testing Syllabus. Based on Buck’s Framework for Considering Listening Construct, by an analysis on tasks in the Internet-based CET-4sample test paper, the conclusion is drawn that the listening subtest in Internet-based CET-4can better test testers’overall language ability, especially their communicative competence.In terms of the criterion-related validation, scoring comparisons are made between the listening subtest of Internet-based CET-4and CET-4paper test with TOEFL listening subtest. To be specific, it aims to investigate if the Internet-based CET-4listening subtest more relevant to TOEFL listening subtest than the paper test, so as to effectively test the communicative competence of the subjects.In order to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the present study, a number of research methods are employed, including comparative analysis of the students’ scores in the three listening subtests, questionnaire surveys with55students and interviews with six teachers. Analyzing both the qualitative data and quantitative data gathered in the present study leads to the conclusion:The listening subtest in Internet-based CET-4has basically high face validity, content validity as well as construct validity. Both listening subtest of the Internet-based CET-4and CET-4paper test are moderately correlated with TOEFL listening subtest, while the correlation coefficient of between listening subtest of the Internet-based CET-4and TOEFL listening subtest is a little higher than that between listening subtest of CET-4paper test and TOEFL listening subtest.At last, according to the findings of the present study, suggestions are put forward to further improve the validity of the listening subtest of Internet-based CET-4, they are mainly:lowering the speed rate of the audio and visual news items; reducing the difficulty index in dictation task and the listening-based writing task; diversifying the question types, etc.