An Analysis On The Content Validity Of Reading Comprehension Part B In Netem (2005-2012)

National Entrance Test of English for MA/MS Candidates is a compulsory examinationfor MA/MS Candidates of non-English majors. NETEM is a national, large-scale, selectivetest, and it has great significance to test takers and universities and so on. Readingcomprehension Part B in NETEM is a newly-added type of test item from2005, and thequality of reading comprehension Part B in NETEM needs scientific validation. Validity is acore standard to measure the quality of a test, and it is imperative to evaluate the validity ofreading comprehension Part B in NETEM.This study is the analysis on the content validity of reading comprehension Part B inNETEM from2005to2012. In line with the test form and content of reading comprehensionPart B in NETEM, the theoretical framework of this paper is adapted from Bachman andPalmer’s test task characteristics model. This study selects the test papers of NETEM readingcomprehension Part B from2005to2012as its research materials. According to the newframework and the requirements of test specifications of NETEM, this research, with theassistance of Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel, focuses on thecharacteristics of the input. The characteristics of the input include length, vocabulary,distribution of new information, sentence type, topic, genre, degree of contextualization,readability, cohesion, and pragmatic characteristics. By analyzing the extent to which thereading comprehension Part B in NETEM from2005to2012meets the requirements of thetest specifications of NETEM, the validity of reading comprehension Part B in NETEM canbe estimated.The results show that the characteristics of reading comprehension Part B in NETEMfrom2005to2012correspond to the requirements of the test specifications of NETEM, andthe reading comprehension Part B in NETEM has high content validity. Most characteristicsof the test setting, length, vocabulary, genre, degree of contextualization, readability, cohesion,pragmatic characteristics, and expected response conform to the test specifications of NETEM.The test can measure test takers’ integrative reading competence. At the same time, the testhas some drawbacks, for example, the time allotment is not explicit, for the test rubrics onlyset the total time, and there is no time limitation for each part of the test; the distribution of new information is unstable, as it changes greatly from year to year in a descending tendency;the frequency of different types of sentences in the texts is unbalanced and complex sentenceswhich are relatively more difficult take up the greatest proportion; the topic coverage is notwide enough.According to these results, some implications on NETEM designing, English teachingand learning are proposed. It is hoped that these suggestions will help to improve the qualityof NETEM and advance language teaching and learning.