| When researching language tests,validity is the most important aspect considered. YCT (Youth Chinese Test) is quickly spreading around the world. More and more students are taking this test.However, there isn’t any research concerning the validity of this test.In order to verify its validity based on new ideas, the author collects evidences in five different aspects as a test user, including:reliability, test content and structure, group comparison, student’s attitude towards the test, and criterion (teacher’s judgment).The research discovered (1) reliability:the whole test, listening and reading parts and most question types have ideal reliability coefficients except the type of True or False Judging.(2) Content and structure:the test covered all linguistic functions and most vocabulary required in the test outline. Listening and reading scores shows the medium significant correlation which means the test is comprehensive by testing different abilities. From face validity this test is assessing most of the content required by the test outline.(3) Group comparison:this test can determine the level of primary learners in the US who have learned Chinese for2semesters with class5times a week (total less than160hours). It can also determine different levels from different schools.(4) Student’s attitude towards the test:this new YCT offers enough time for each part. Some students think the examples given by the test are difficult to understand. The pictures and pinyin adequately helped students with question comprehension. The content of this test does not relate to their textbooks, while the material is vital for daily life. Most students think they need training to properly prepare for the YCT, but, their opinions vary drastically. In addition, this survey discovered that question difficulty evaluation is statistically related to performance on the YCT. The interest in the item type is not statically significant to their overall performance. The degree to which the students think the questions fairly assessed their ability was related to their performance in the listening part.(5) Criterion (teacher’s judgment):the teacher’s judgment of an individual student ability and the performance of the students in this test showed significantly high correlation. The Criterion used proved the test can determine sufficiently the different levels of the Chinese language learners.In general, the YCT level two can adequately measure the level of the beginner students who have learned less than160hours. However, the degree of differentiation in some questions are not significant. Some questions are relatively very easy. Some linguistic functions are minimally tested or not tested in the listening or reading part. In addition, this test cannot sufficiently determine the levels of higher level learners, but, it was intended for testing primary language learners by the test creator.According to the research results, the paper makes corresponding suggestion to YCT Level Two.This research used many methods such as:statistical analysis, student survey and teacher interviews to try to collect validity evidence from various aspects. It fully explored the validity of this test and presented suggestions for the future development of the test. However, because of the limited conditions, the sample taken was not a large enough sample size. Other statistical methods were not used and evidence was not collected from other aspects. In future research, a larger sample size should be gathered, and the other three YCT level tests ought to be researched using more statistical methods and other aspects of evidence. Furthermore, the differential item functioning, DIF, also needs to be researched in the future. |
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