Analysis of the Content Validity of Reading Comprehension in NMET from 2012-2019

1.Context and Significance of the Study

English plays an increasingly important part in College Entrance Examinations， which determines whether a senior student have the opportunity to attend university and which university they attend and reading comprehension plays a very important role in NMET and thus deserves much attention.Whats more， the result of a test directly affects the teaching and learning of the students and can be regarded as the basis for teachers future teaching.

2.Literature Review

Bachman and palmer（1999） offer a detailed framework of language task characteristics. In 2000， Educational Testing Service（ETS） published a report about the new TOEFL， which contains there parts： the whole framework， listening framework and reading framework. However， there are many differences between TOEFL and NMET， and some characteristics are difficult to measure. Then， it is necessary for us to set a practical framework for reading comprehension of NMET. Therefore， Dong Manxia（2008） establishes a set of criteria to verify the content validity of reading comprehension tests.

3.Research Concerns

The research concerns the content validity of reading comprehension in NMET from 2012-2019 by analyzing nine parts of the reading material： length， speed， new words， readabilities， topics， genres， new information density， response types and reading skills.

4.Research Process

4.1 Language input

4.1.1 Length

It is easy to get data in this part and all what is needed is the NMET papers from 2012-2019.

4.1.2 Speed

Yang & weir（1998） indicate that the designer of test papers make a proportion of 1 to 0.75 of reading the passage to responding to the passage. The test syllabus suggests 35minutes for the reading part. Therefore， 20 minutes are needed for reading the passage and 15 for answering the question. Therefore， the reading speed equals the length of the passage divided by the time for reading the passage.

4.1.3 New words

The percentage of new words is the number of new words in 100 words. Generally speaking， more new words means more difficulty. Vocabulary is offered in the test syllabus and words beyond the vocabulary are called new words， including new words， words with unfamiliar meanings and compound & derivable words.

4.1.4 Readabilities

Readability is the difficulty of reading and understanding the reading material. It is generally affected by the form of language， such as the length of the sentences， the new words， and the complexity of the grammar. The readability of NMET reading comprehension should centered on 60-70.

A widely used formula to measure the readability of a passage is the Flesh formula. The formula is like this： readability = 206.835-0.846×wl-1.015sl.（wl：the number of syllables in 100 words; sl： the average number of words

in a sentence）.

4.1.5 Topics

24 topics are mentioned in the test syllabus and the reading passage should be among these topics. One topic are not supposed to appear twice in a paper.

4.1.6 Genres

According to the test syllabus， the participant can read， understand and get information from brief passages about some general topics in books， newspapers and magazines， as well as announcement， exposition and advertisement. Here we divide genres into four parts： narration， exposition， argumentation and practical writing.

4.1.7 New information density

Any discourse consists of known information and new information. Only new information cant form a discourse and merely known information wont develop a discourse. Readers need to read and grasp new information while reading. The placement of new information in the discourse/passage is called new information density.

To measure new information density， the writer counts the proportion of notional words（ nouns， notional verbs， adjectives， adverbs） in the passage. Numbers are included because they convey actual meanings in the passages.

4.2 Expected response

4.2.1 response types

There are three response types： selected response， limited production response and extended production response. Two types of questions appeared in NMET from 2012 to 2019： multiple choice and five of seven， which are both selected response. In other words， all the questions of reading comprehension in NMET from 2012-2017 expect selected response. My suggestion is that various types are necessary to detect the real reading ability of the participant since chance plays an important part in answering multiple choice questions.

4.2.2 reading abilities

Six reading abilities are mentioned in the test syllabus.

1）to grasp the main idea of the passage

2）to understand the detailed information

3）to deduce the meaning of words and phrases according to the context

4）to judge and infer

5）to understand the structure of the passage

6）to understand the intention， opinions and attitudes of the writer

References

[1]董曼霞.content validity study on reading comprehension tests of NMET[J].Teaching English in China，2008（04）：29-39+128.

[2]Bachaman， L.F.&A.S.Pal mer.1999.Language Testing in Practice.Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3]鄒申.1997.The test for English Majors （TEM） Validation Study.Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

作者簡介：李雨雨（1991-）;女;漢族;江西九江人;中學二級職稱，江西科技師范大學研究生在讀;研究方向：英語教學;