Construct Validity Of Task-Based Pleading In Standard-based Senion High Schcool Entrance English Examination

Construct validity is the degree to which a test measures what it claims,or purports,to be measuring(Brown,1996).This thesis aims to investigate the construct validity of Task-based(T/B)Reading in Senior High School Entrance English Examination(SHSEEE).The T/B Reading Test offers test-takers a passage followed by a table of outline.Instead of answering the questions by choosing the best one from among the four choices,test-takers are required to fill the gaps in the table by writing down the words based on their understanding of the passage,and the words they fill in must be grammatically correct and semantically appropriate.So the intention of test designers is to measure students' reading competence in an acceptable context.It is expected that the T/B Reading can activate students' basic reading competence and encourage them to make full use of it in context.But in the actual implementation,to what extent can the T/B Reading reflect the testing objectives as required in The Junior Middle School English Curriculum Standard(2011)?To what extent does the T/B Reading of SHSEEE measure the test-takers,performances in line with expectations?These issues need further research.At the same time,since the T/B Reading has been put into use not only in Wuxi,but also in other cities around Jiangsu province,the validation study of this T/B Reading is also quite necessary.Based on the language testing theory and the validity theory(Messick,1989),construct-relevant evidences(Chen,2010)were answered by the teachers' questionnaire.This study also adopts the "retrospection"(Green,1998)to verify the construct validity of the T/B Reading test of SHSEEE based on the analysis of test-taking process.In order to verify the construct validity of the T/B Reading of SHSEEE in Wuxi,firstly,ten experienced teachers were invited to finish this test.Then they were asked to record the test-taking strategies of each item.They were also asked to finish a questionnaire.The results reflect that the T/B Reading test in 2015 can realize the testing objectives according to The Junior Middle School English Curriculum Standard.Secondly,as for the test-takers,a class of students in Grade Nine from a Middle School in Wuxi took part in this test.Afterwards,all the test-takers were immediately asked to report the process of performance in the test in order to investigate the test-taking strategies they employed.Finally,SPSS 19.0 statistical software was used for quantitative analysis which compared the similarities and differences in the test-taking strategies between two groups with different English proficiency.The results of the questionnaires demonstrate that,overall speaking,junior middle school English teachers agree with the statements in the questionnaire concerning the construct of the T/B Reading test.As for participantsJ answering process,it is found out that,in most cases,participants answer the item correctly because of the grasp of the reading competence.So participants' answering process is consistent with the expected answering process.However,there are also some limitations.For example,the participants,whose overall level of English comprehension quality might be relatively not very high,were lack of tension while finishing the test paper.As a result,it is difficult to ensure the data is very objective and reliable.Generally speaking,the junior middle school English teachers' opinions about the construct of T/B Reading task agree with the test designers' intention.At the same time,participants' answering process also reveals that they do use the abilities supposed to be measured by the T/B Reading test.Therefore,we can conclude that T/B Reading test has a good level of construct validity.