On Curriculum Assessment From An Evaluation Study On Communicative Language Proficiency Of Freshmen Of English Major At ECNU

The Ministry of Education enacted the National English Curriculum Standards for senior high schools (Trial Edition)(abbreviated as NECS, or new curriculum standards in the thesis) in April,2003. Four provinces and autonomous regions, as the pilot areas, have started to implement the new curriculum standards since the fall of2004. Many other provinces have followed up and undertaken new curriculum reform. By2013, ten years has passed. It is no doubt that over the last decade, the implementation of the NECS has made significant impacts on the high school English education in China. In recent years, as national wide curriculum reform has been continuously undertaken, great achievements have been made, while at the same time, some defects and potential problems may also appear. After ten years of operation, from the policy-making perspective, in order to meet the growing demand of contemporary social and educational development, the NECS is therefore up for revision and adjustment. The original intention of the author to carry out the present research was in response to an upcoming new round amendment of the NECS. We hope to provide some information for reference in the revision of the NECS. Meanwhile, we hope that the data and conclusion of the thesis may also provide feedback to high school authorities and teachers, and inspire them to implement the new curriculum standards.According to curriculum assessment theories, alignment between the four core components—intended curriculum, enacted curriculum, assessed curriculum and learned curriculum, is considered to be the overarching principle when we assess a curriculum. To assess the NECS, the study therefore attempts to investigate the alignment between content standards and students’learning outcomes, through answering the research question "do the students meet the requirement of level8of the NECS in terms of communicative language proficiency?"The author started with an analysis of the main contents of the NECS, and then referred to a series of assessment scales from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and alignment models for curriculum assessments. Based on the theory of communicative language proficiency, the author analyzed freshmen’s performance in the tests. Results from the study carried out at the ECNU suggest that the students have achieved the target of language ability prescribed by the NECS and the intended curriculum well aligned with the learned curriculum; for freshmen of English major at ECNU, the objectives set by the NECS were generally reasonable and feasible, and the NECS has been well implemented and has achieved its intended target. Meanwhile, with the evidence provided by previous studies, this study concludes that. In addition, the author also points out that there are some inadequacies within the NECS that need improvement in the future revision.