A Comparative Study Of The Writing Part Between The New HSK And The French DELF-DALF

Developed by Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters and Beijing Language and Culture University,HSK is China's national standardized language test for nonnative speakers of Chinese.In 2009,Hanban launched the new HSK to meet the needs of Chinese teaching in the world.However,over a period of ten years,the new HSK has gradually exposed some shortcomings,especially in the part of writing.In contrast,the DELF-DALF(French Proficiency Tests)set up by the French Ministry of Education has greatly improved reliability and validity since its reform in 2005,and it has the same level setting and common reference frame as the new HSK.Therefore,this paper,from the perspective of writing test and by means of choosing the writing materials of both tests(the new HSK and DELF-DALF)as samples,aims to explore the differences and similarities of the writing tests from various aspects after a general introduction and comparison of factors affecting systems of the two tests.Then,we have interviews with 12 professional teachers.The purpose of this paper is not to compare which test is better,but to draw on the successful experience of DELF-DALF to provide some suggestions for relevant departments to modify and perfect the writing part of the new HSK.This paper is composed of the following five parts.In the first part,we review the past studies about the new HSK and DELF-DALF.This paper is the first domestic comparative study of the new HSK and DELF-DALF.The second part is a general and introductive contrast of the test system of the new HSK and DELF-DALF,mainly including examination principles,theoretical basis,and an overall test structure.The two tests can form a correspondence in grades with Common European Framework of Reference for Languages(CEFR),both of which have writing parts,and both focus on the communicative competence of language.However,the new HSK does not have writing part at level 1 and 2,while all levels of the DELF-DALF have writing part.Considering the complexity of Chinese characters,we no longer conduct horizontal comparison based on levels,but mainly based on the principle of communicative language testing to make a vertical comparison.In the third part,we compared the new HSK and DELF-DALF in five aspects.Firstly,the new HSK fails to divide the ability requirements into four skills,and apparently reduces the writing ability requirements at levels 1 to 4;the DELF-DALF is more in line with the CEFR,but some descriptors are not minute enough.Secondly,the new HSK focuses on the lingustic competence,and the purpose is clear,but some question types violate the psychological process of actual communication;most of the question types of DELF-DALF focuses on communicative competence,which conform to the principle of communicative language testing.Thirdly,in terms of input,the advantage of the new HSK is that the question instructions are clear and easy to understand,but lack communicative situation.The communicative situation of DELFDALF is clear and highly authentic,but some questions still have problems in terms of task fairness.Fourthly,the new HSK and DELF mainly focus on daily-life topics,while the DALF includes a wider range of topics with academic and professional characteristics.Lastly,in terms of test assessment,the new HSK uses global marking,but the description of the standard is too brief and lacks specific scores and the standard of appropriateness.The DELF-DALF uses a combination of global and analytical marking,and adhere to take the effective communication as the standard.In the fourth part,we analyze the results of the interviews with 12 professional teachers and the conclusions are as follows.First,the writing part of new HSK and DELF-DALF have different focuses,and DELF-DALF pays more attention to the communicative competence.Second,it is necessary to improve the current instructions for picture writing in the new HSK,such as adding simple descriptions of situation based on pictures.Third,the question types of DELF-DALF are not fully applicable to the new HSK.The fifth part,we recall the above research work,and put forward the following suggestions for the writing part of the new HSK.First,divide the skills to improve the language ability requirements.Second,it is necessary to improve the instruction for picture writing.Third,filling out forms,application and argumentative writing of the DELF-DALF are the questions to test communicative competence,which have certain reference significance.Fourth,for advanced level,it is possible to consider a wider rage of topics.Fifth,take accuracy,fluency and appropriateness as scoring standards,and refine the description and score.