Comparative Analysis Of Middle And Advanced Listening And Reading Test Between The New HSK And Test DaF

Under the background of rapid economic development in China,the international influence has been continuously increasing,attracting a large number of international students to study in China every year.As one of the basic conditions for international students to apply for Chinese universities,the new HSK examination is becoming more and more popular to the world.Although the new HSK has made remarkable achievements in various aspects since 2009,but it still has deficiencies in many aspects compared with other world-renowned language tests,which has long development history.The current comparative study of the new HSK focuses on the English test(IELTS,TOEFL),the Taiwan Mandarin test(TOCFL),as well as the Japanese test(JLPT).The advent of the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" is an epoch-making event in the history of foreign language education in Europe and the world.It is the benchmark for European language assessment frameworks and teaching guidelines.However,the comparative study of the new HSK and European language tests is still unexplored.This article will focus on the comparison of the listening and reading parts of the new HSK and the test DaF from three aspects of test structures,test materials,and question types to make up this blank.Through analysis and comparison of 18 sets of examination papers,it is believed that the two language tests have their own styles.The new HSK examines the candidate's general language ability,and has the characteristics of short length,multiple articles,large quantity of questions,and rich materials;the Test DaF examines whether the candidates have the language ability to study and live in German universities and have the characteristics of clear structure and long length of listening and reading.Comparing the two language tests,the common deficiencies in the new HSK listening and reading test is mainly reflected in the unbalanced structure of short and long materials,there is a obvious shortage of middle-length and long-length listening and reading articles;and less-balanced selection of material in the educational and occupational domains;weak authenticity;focusing on Chinese characters and grammar,but insufficient assessment of strategic abilities;less variety of exam types;insufficient assessment of professional and academic listening and reading skills,among which the problems of the new HSK-4 is most prominent,the difficulty in listening and reading is too low to be used as a language certificate for undergraduate admission.In addition,the new HSK hearing test has also the problem with Chinese characters interference,besides,argumentation reading comprehension,skimming and scanning reading are not involved in HSK-4 and HSK-5.In view of the above-mentioned facts,this paper further analyzes the reasons for these problems and proposes corresponding improvements for the new HSK.