A Study On Input Authenticity Of The English Reading Comprehension Materials Of Junior Secondary Graduation Tests In Hunan

Reading comprehension is regarded as the most important part in the subject of English in Junior Secondary Graduation Test(JSGT).Moreover,the input authenticity in the reading materials directly determines the overall validity of the reading test and the final score of the reading comprehension for the test takers.This thesis aims to explore the input authenticity of the English reading materials of JSGT through the following questions:1.What are the overall characteristics of the input authenticity presented in the reading materials of Junior Secondary English Achievement Graduation Test(JSEAGT)in Hunan?2.Are there any obvious chronological and regional characteristics in the input authenticity of JSEGAT in Hunan?If yes,then what aspects are the characteristics presented in?3.To what extent are the reading materials of JSEAGT in Hunan consistent with the Testing Standard of JSEAGT in Hunan and English Curriculum Standard from the perspective of the input authenticity?Under the theories of communicative language ability and communicative language testing(Bachman,1995),and based on the Framework of Task Characteristics(Bachman&Palmer,2000),this thesis analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively the input authenticity of 141 reading comprehension passages of Hunan JSEAGT in 2015 and 2016.The major findings are summarized as follows:1.The reading materials of Hunan JSEAGT in 2015 and 2016 well embodied the input authenticity,especially from the form of presentation,passage length,topic characteristics,grammatical characteristics and readability.2.No obvious chronological features are observed except the following features.The form of presentation of the reading materials in 2016 is characterized by the combination of language and pictures(non-language),the slight increase in the passage length,the more society-related and school-life-centered topics.Considering the actual ability of the students and the local English teaching level,the difficulty and length of the reading materials are taken into account in the JSEAGT in different cities.Therefore,there are distinct regional differences:the reading materials in the developed cities like Changsha are always longer and more difficult whereas reading materials in the less developed areas like Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Zhangjiajie are shorter and easier.3.From the perspective of input authenticity,the reading materials of JSEAGT in Hunan attach great importance to students’ English language use and comprehensive ability.The input authenticity of the reading materials of Hunan JSEAGT is almost consistent with the Testing Standard of JSEAGT in Hunan and English Curriculum Standard for Junior Students.