A Content Validity Study Of SCET3 Reading Comprehension

SCET3 (Sichuan province College English Test-band 3) is the largest-scale English standard test in Sichuan province. Since its inception in 1993, SCET3 has gained an increasing population across colleges and all fields in Sichuan Province. Just like CET, SCET3 scores not only relate directly to whether a non-English major graduate can obtain his or her degree in most colleges and universities, but also undertake students’ future career opportunities. However, compared with the intensive attention paid to CET, there were few studies made into CET3 of Sichuan Province theoretically and empirically at present.Therefore, the present study attempts to draw people’s attention on SCET3, and by exploring the content validity of the SCET3 reading comprehension parts to provide guidance for test designers to optimize their design, to offer valuable information and suggestions for college English teaching and learningBased on the previous theoretical and empirical research findings in reading tests, in light of Bachman and Palmer’s framework for validating reading test (1996), the present study focuses on the content validity study by comparing the SCET3 reading comprehension with the 2007 SCET3 testing syllabus. Considerable amounts of data have been collected initially to conduct detailed comparisons and careful analysis on the characteristics of input, including text length, task length, speed, readability, topic area and genre, then the expected response, including the question types and the reading skills coverage. By careful compare and detailed analysis, this study has examined 10 SCET3 papers from the year 2006 to 2010, including 40 reading passages and 200 question items.By answering the two research questions:1. What are the specific characteristics of reading comprehension in SCET3 from 2006 to 2010?2. To what extent does the reading comprehension of SCET3 meet the requirements of its testing syllabus?This study draws the following major findings:1. The reading test papers from 2006 to 2010 remain steady in terms of the test structure and format.2. The chosen forty reading comprehension tests are all under good control and there is high consistency in content characteristics among each paper, all of which basically meet the requirement of testing syllabus for SCET3 in terms of the characteristics of input.However, some defects of content validity of SCET3 reading comprehension test has also been found out. Besides putting forward some theoretical and practical implications for test designers, college English teachers and students in the respect of test design, college English teaching and learning, the writer also points out the limitations of the present study as well as some suggestions and expectations for the following research.