A Study On Content Validity Of Reading Comprehension Tests In NMET Ⅱ

This study aims at exploring the content validity of National Matriculation English Test paper II from 2013 to 2017,as well as providing some beneficial information and suggestions for test paper designers,teachers and learners.The research questions are as follows:To what extent do the characteristics of input and characteristics of expected response in 2013-2017 NMET paper II reading comprehension test correspond to New Curriculum Standard and Testing Syllabus.By doing this research,what are the suggestions on developing students’ reading comprehension competence and skills?Based on Bachman&Palmer’s framework of task characteristics(1996),this paper compares the reading comprehension tests from 2013 to 2017 with requirements of New Curriculum Standards and Testing Syllabus.The result shows that reading comprehension tests from 2013 to 2017 basically meet the requirements of New Curriculum Standard and Testing Syllabus and have high content validity.In terms of characteristics of input,the length,reading speed and readability of reading comprehension passages are appropriate.But the distribution of topic and genre in each year is uneven.In terms of characteristics of expected response,the language and designing of question items are reasonable.But the response type is single,and the measure of reading skills is not balanced.It is suggested that the distribution of topic and genre should be balanced and diverse,and various test formats should be taken into consideration in order to measure test takers’ real language ability directly.What’s more,in reading skills coverage,the six reading skills should be balanced.Accordingly,teachers should study New Curriculum Standard and Testing Syllabus carefully to know the direction of NMET II,and guide students to read more extracurricular reading materials with different kinds of topics to master more background information.Furthermore,students should be instructed to have a good command of the differences among four kinds of genres and improve their reading speed under the teachers’ guidance.