A Study On Matching PETS-2Oral Specifications With High School "English Curriculum Standards"

Public English Test System (hereinafter referred to as PETS) is a nation-wideEnglish test designed and managed by Ministry of Education Test Center. PETS-2isthe pre-intermediate level test in the system. Hunan Provincial Education ExaminationBoard decided that from2007, PETS-2oral test stands for the oral English proficiencyof the College Entrance English Examination in Hunan province. It is therefore raisethe issue about whether PETS-2oral test score could reflect the requirements ofCollege Entrance Examination and the teaching requirement at senior high schoolunder new “English Curriculum Standards”.This study therefore explores the content validity of PETS-2oral test as Hunanprovincial College Entrance Examination English oral test by comparing PETS-2OralSpecifications with new “English Curriculum Standards” level seven (demands ofsenior high school graduates in Hunan province).Liu Runqing&Han Baocheng’s framework (2000:208) about content validity isfinally selected as the theoretical framework of this study. The framework primarilyinvolves the comparison and analysis of content standards between PETS-2OralSpecifications and the new “English Curriculum Standards” level seven.The results of this study demonstrate a low content validity of PETS-2oral test asHunan provincial College Entrance Examination English oral test. The major findingsare as follows:1. No specifications for College Entrance Examination English oral testin Hunan Province were proposed.2. There is nearly no correspondence betweenPETS-2and College Entrance Examination in regard of their designing backgrounds,purposes and properties.3. Language skill tested in PETS-2and those required by thenew Curriculum match with each other.4. The matches between aspects of languageknowledge being tested and being required vary.5No learning strategy, learningattitude or cultural awareness is mentioned in the PETS-2Oral Specifications asrequired by the Curriculum.Implications are offered on how to improve the content validity of PETS-2oraltest as Hunan provincial College Entrance Examination English oral test at the end ofthis thesis.