Testing a Nation: The Social and Educational Impact of the College English Test in China

250 Pages·2013·7.407 MB·English

by  Mark Garner, Dayong Huang

new approaches to applied linguistics
Many countries have national policies in relation to English language teaching that are
monitored through standardized tests, and students’ performance in these tests may have
a significant impact on their career prospects. When such high stakes become attached to
a language test, it begins to play a far greater role than originally intended.
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A preeminent example is the College English Test (CET), taken biannually by upwards of r
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ten million students in China, which makes it the world’s largest national English test. Its e
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impact is evident in many areas of Chinese society. Specified grades on the CET are require- a
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ments for graduation from universities, many job applications and even some residence d Testing a Nation
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permits. Consolidated CET results are widely used for rating teachers for promotion and
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for competitively grading institutions, hence influencing strategic planning by universi- a
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which is the subject of frequent governmental disclaimers and warnings. T The Social and Educational Impact of
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This book reports on an extensive study of the impact of the CET in China, both on the in the College English Test in China
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lives of students and teachers and on educational and governmental institutions. The

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authors also draw theoretical and practical implications from their study for educational N
planners in other countries. a
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Mark Garner is Director of the Centre for Language Assessment Research at the University
of Roehampton, UK. He has taught applied linguistics, communication theory and research
methodology at universities in four countries and has published widely on a range of topics
Mark Garner and Dayong Huang
in those fields.
Dayong Huang is Vice Dean of the School of Foreign Languages at Civil Aviation Flight
University of China. He has taught linguistics, language testing and aviation English and
has published on language testing and aviation English teaching and testing. He holds a
PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK.
ISBN 978-3-0343-1704-7
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
Testing a Nation
New Approaches to Applied Linguistics
Volume 1
Edited by
Mark Garner
Annabelle Mooney
Barbara Fennell
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Testing a Nation
The Social and Educational Impact of the
College English Test in China
Mark Garner and Dayong Huang
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013939844
issn 2296-2700
isbn 978-3-0343-1704-7 (print)
isbn 978-3-0353-0542-5 (eBook)
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2014
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Printed in Germany
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
The background to the CET 9
Chapter 2
Previous studies of test impact 29
Chapter 3
The design and conduct of the study 49
Chapter 4
Uses made of the CET results 61
Chapter 5
The impact of the CET on learning and teaching 87
Chapter 6
The impact of the CET on students’ ethical conduct:
Cheating on the CET 113
vi
Chapter 7
How fair is the CET? Perceptions of stakeholders 137
Chapter 8
Theorizing the impact of the CET 159
Conclusion 173
Appendices 175
Bibliography 211
Index 233
Figures
Figure 1 Students’ progress stages from primary school upward 11
Figure 2 Operational structure of the CET since 2006 26
Figure 3 A basic model for the consequential aspect of validity 39
Figure 4 The CET ball and its rollers 85
Figure 5 Test impact model 162

Tables
Table 1 The large-scale English tests in China 16
Table 2 The revisions to the CET content and format since 1987
(written test) 23–24
Table 3 Dif ferent CET score requirements for a bachelor’s degree 66
Table 4 English requirements in job advertisements 71
Table 5 Shanghai Electrics Group 2008 campus recruitment plan 73
Table 6 The CET requirements in recruitment by government
departments 74
Table 7 Costs for taking dif ferent English tests in China 76
Table 8 Employers’ CET requirements 76
Table 9 The amount of CET preparation in class 99
Table 10 The admission scores for some regions in 2004 153