A Comparative Study Of Content Validity Of Cloze Tests In Guilin Senior High School Entrance Examination Of English

As a necessary test type of recruitment exam for junior high school graduates,the validity of cloze test is intimately connected with the quality of the Senior High School Entrance Examination(SHSEEE).At present,the related researches and analysis on validity of cloze test from academic community focus on the aspects of CET 4 and 6,TEM 4 and 8 and National Matriculation English Test(NMET),while not too many studies about validity of SHSEEE cloze tests are explored,especially,it never appears any analysis on the validity of Guilin SHSEEE cloze test.Therefore,it is especially necessary to conduct a research on validity of Guilin SHSEEE cloze tests.Based on the above reasons,this research takes those cloze tests of Guilin SHSEEE as research objects.In the light of validity theory and validation assessment framework,it analyzes the general writing features of those cloze tests before and after the implementation of the new English Curriculum Standard and verifies comparatively content validity of Guilin SHSEEE cloze tests with the combination of Testing Syllabuses and Testing Directions by adopting qualitative and quantitative approaches.Meanwhile,some referential suggestions are proposed for the future Guilin cloze-test design.To start with,this research constructs a newly modified validation framework for cloze test on the basis of three influential frameworks proposed by Bachman and Palmer(1999),Weir(2005)and Li Xiaoju(1997).Then,the systematic comparisons and verification are conducted from four aspects of test setting,test rubric,test input,the expected response in accordance with the new English curriculum for Junior High Schools,Testing Syllabus and Testing Directions for Guilin SHSEEE.In addition,the questionnaire and interview of English teachers are carried out on comparative content validity of cloze tests before and after the implementation of the new English Curriculum Standard,which further confirms the results of cloze text analysis.The major research findings are as follows:First,the contents of cloze tests after the implementation of junior middle school new English Curriculum Standard mainly accord with the requirements in new English Curriculum Standard,Testing Syllabuses and Testing Directions for Guilin SHSEEE.Compared with the cloze tests before the new English Curriculum Standard,cloze tests after the implementation of the new English Curriculum Standard forjunior middle school state more appropriate and possess a relatively high content validity.Second,some cloze-test variables in the validity research of Guilin SHSEEE cloze tests still need some improvements,such as unitary test format with only multiple choice,limited scope of topics and genres,inadequate test of higher focus factor and test level.At last,according to analyzing data and results,this thesis,from the perspective of the backwash of cloze test,provides some relevant suggestions and implications for reference for cloze-test designer and English teaching and learning of junior high schools.