| National Matriculation English Test(NMET)is one of the most vital examinations for selecting candidates for universities and colleges.Writing as a productive language skill could test students' comprehensive language abilities effectively.Thus,the writing portion in NMET paper becomes the subjective final test part with the highest score.It is the focus of concern by many English teachers and students.The quality of writing tasks is not only closely related to whether it could reflect the accuracy of students' real language proficiency,but also would bring obvious backwash to English teaching of writing in senior high schools.This study adopts literature research,quantitative analysis of test papers and qualitative interview methods.It takes 35 writing test items altogether of Shanghai,Zhejiang and National papers from 2014 to 2018 as research models.It also carries out longitudinal analysis of the quality of these items from three perspectives: test contents,writing prompts and context design.The study aims at solving the following questions:(1)What are the characters of writing test items of NMET of Shanghai,Zhejiang and National papers?(2)What are the implications of the results of the study on writing design in NMET and the teaching of writing in senior high schools?(3)What is the level of summary writing of the students in the new CEE reform in Fujian provinces?The study reveals the following three findings in contents,writing prompts and context design.For text contents,the types of genre are diversified and various.The writing topics cover a wide range,which focus on the relationship between human and ego,society and nature.Although the infiltration of Chinese traditional culture is excellent and increasingly enhanced,the proportion of practical writing is relatively too large.For the writing prompts,nearly all the writing items contained moderately adequate information while most of them are confined to an outline,the presentation of writing prompts is single with no other changes to be compared to.For the context design,the principles of authenticity,interactivity and openness have been adopted appropriately.It also indicates specific problems including topics not relevant to students' real life,unclear writing objectives,which lead to negative impacts of communication between the writer and the reader,and not enough information to write or too much freedom for test takers.After finishing the three general perspectives analysis,further study continues towards the latest direction of writing tests focusing on the two new types of writing in NMET—the continuation of task and summary writing.The analysis of students' summary writing showsthat they have strong adaptability to it for most of them generally could get good scores.Still,there are language mistakes and misunderstandings in students' summary writing;hence,they are expected to get further scientific training.Based on these findings,this study made some specific suggestions for future improvement in the design of writing test items in NMET and for the teaching of writing in senior high schools.For test designer of NMET,it is necessary to keep balance among different kinds of genres.It also recommends to adhere to the principles of the universality,the relevance and the profundity in writing topics;to give emphasis to the diversity of the prompts forms;and to take students real life experiences into considerations to ensure the authenticity in context design.Most importantly,for English teachers in high schools to stick to and maintain the principles of combining reading and writing;to intensify text interpretations;to cultivate students' cultural awareness and encourage them to tell Chinese stories well in English.All above aim at improving students' writing ability,getting further promotion in NMET of scientification,comprehensiveness and impartiality in order to play the core role of CEE in morality education,candidates selection and teaching guidance. |
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