A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Gender Representation Of CET-4

National College English Test Band Four(hereafter CET-4) is a national standardized language test implemented by the Higher Education Ministry(National College English Test Committee, 2006). The test results are often used as a basis or start point for making decision of enrollment or employment. With the emphasis on studying the imparity, injustice, bias and prejudice etc. in language, Critical Discourse Analysis(hereafter CDA) corresponds to the study on disclosing the hidden social problems(e.g. gender bias) in language testing. Also, few systematic critical discourse studies focus on testing texts. Therefore, all the texts on the past CET-4 examination papers ranging from 1987 to 2013 were collected and formed a corpus CCET4 with 399 texts totally 111,077 words. According to Hellinger and BuBmann’s(2001) study of gender bias in English, this research applies quantitative methods to analyze CCET4 corpus by using Corpus Linguistics tools. Then, the gender representation of CET-4 is analyzed based on Fairclough’s understanding of analyzing discourse in three-dimensional model. The present study finds the following:The terms of lexical gender(i.e. terms with specific [female] or [male] semantic property) occur unequally in CCET4 corpus. Female proper nouns, female nouns, female pronouns and female address terms occur fewer than males. Male generics which are used to refer to males as well as females or gender-unidentified person are still frequently used in the corpus of CET-4. In studying the gender orientation of the terms of social gender in CCET4 corpus, the occupations that collocate with males are not only various but highly-paid and high-skilled. Females’ life is confined to low-skilled occupations, housework and children-caring. What’s more, the portrayal of females pays more attention on their physical appearance and tender or weak character. However, males are often portrayed as persons with clever and strong characteristics, and they are often involved in earning money or success etc.The existence of female invisibility, masculinism and gender occupational and character stereotypes reveals that in CET-4 gender bias does exist. The representation about the two sexes in the corpus of CET-4 also serves ideological functions. All above these are barriers in the formation of the learners’ gender cognition and affect the fairness of CET-4.