This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section （i.e. writing subtest as in this paper） of College English Test Band Four （CET-4） on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to prom...This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section （i.e. writing subtest as in this paper） of College English Test Band Four （CET-4） on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to promote the positive effects and diminish the negative ones. The study collected data from 181 college English learners, nine college English teachers and two CET-4 raters through interview, observation and documentary analysis. Findings indicate that CET-4 writing subtest produces more negative impacts than positive ones. Moreover, the findings also indicate that the washback of CET-4 writing is weakened by other sections of the test.展开更多
This paper is to investigate whether the CET-4 writing section has positive effect in terms of Communicative Language Testing.The questionnaire survey method is adopted to carry out the research to collect data.It is ...This paper is to investigate whether the CET-4 writing section has positive effect in terms of Communicative Language Testing.The questionnaire survey method is adopted to carry out the research to collect data.It is concluded that currently the CET-4 writing section has certain harmful effect upon English learning of college non-English major students.Further reforms and improvement from the perspective of communicative language testing concerning the scoring criteria and the design of the task should be the focus of the future.展开更多
The aim of English writing is to test students' language proficiency.The State Education Commission regulates clearly that the result of CET-4 will be considered as Failure if candidates get 0 score in their writi...The aim of English writing is to test students' language proficiency.The State Education Commission regulates clearly that the result of CET-4 will be considered as Failure if candidates get 0 score in their writing part,regardless of scores from other parts of the paper.Therefore,the importance of writing cannot be ignored.展开更多
Test anxiety, which means individuals show excessive worry, nervousness and anxiety in examination contexts, is becoming a more and more common phenomenon. A moderate level of test anxiety will motivate students while...Test anxiety, which means individuals show excessive worry, nervousness and anxiety in examination contexts, is becoming a more and more common phenomenon. A moderate level of test anxiety will motivate students while a too high or too low level of test anxiety will influence students’ academic performance and their cognitive abilities. Most present researches are focused on secondary school students or on the final exam of a specific school. Few researches on college students and standard tests can be found. Therefore, the researcher took 255 college students as samples to investigate the test anxiety level of non-English majors, their attitudes towards different test tasks (ATDTT) and the correlation between them. The results of the research are as follows: Firstly, the students from non-English majors are at the lower of a moderate test anxiety level in CET-4 and there is no significant gender difference. Secondly, among the four sections in CET-4, students are most positive in writing, less positive in translation and reading, and the least positive in listening. Thirdly, students’ ATDTT in CET-4 are negatively correlated with total test anxiety, cognitive anxiety and emotional anxiety. The researcher hopes this research can offer some help to teachers and students in need.展开更多
This qualitative research study attempts to discover the real thinking process of learners who are native Chinese speakers in Academic English Writing(AEW)through interviews.Introspecting an EFL learner’s thinking pr...This qualitative research study attempts to discover the real thinking process of learners who are native Chinese speakers in Academic English Writing(AEW)through interviews.Introspecting an EFL learner’s thinking process in English writing is based on two theories:critical period hypothesis and translanguaging.The results of the study indicate that translanguaging has a positive impact on the English CET-4 writing of learners who lack proficiency in English.For those learners who lack proficiency in the second language,translanguaging is an effective auxiliary tool for them to complete AEW.展开更多
Based on the theoretical foundation of thematic progression construction, this paper introduces several common patterns of thematic progression and attempts to find applicability of patterns of thematic progression in...Based on the theoretical foundation of thematic progression construction, this paper introduces several common patterns of thematic progression and attempts to find applicability of patterns of thematic progression in the teaching of CET-4 argumentative writing from the perspective of discourse so as to show the implication of these patterns for the teaching of college English writing.展开更多
The paper discusses the ＂Writing Test＂ in College English Test - Band Four in two aspects. One is the design of the ＂Writing＂ form; the other is the scoring process. From the discussion the paper comes to a conclu...The paper discusses the ＂Writing Test＂ in College English Test - Band Four in two aspects. One is the design of the ＂Writing＂ form; the other is the scoring process. From the discussion the paper comes to a conclusion that the ＂Writing Test＂ in CET-4 should be reformed in two ways： the single style of the ＂Writing＂ structure should be changed to various styles in design, and the ＂global scoring＂ principle used in marking the writing should be changed to ＂local scoring＂. At last, the author suggests some ways of how to put the reforming into reality,展开更多
文摘This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section （i.e. writing subtest as in this paper） of College English Test Band Four （CET-4） on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to promote the positive effects and diminish the negative ones. The study collected data from 181 college English learners, nine college English teachers and two CET-4 raters through interview, observation and documentary analysis. Findings indicate that CET-4 writing subtest produces more negative impacts than positive ones. Moreover, the findings also indicate that the washback of CET-4 writing is weakened by other sections of the test.
文摘This paper is to investigate whether the CET-4 writing section has positive effect in terms of Communicative Language Testing.The questionnaire survey method is adopted to carry out the research to collect data.It is concluded that currently the CET-4 writing section has certain harmful effect upon English learning of college non-English major students.Further reforms and improvement from the perspective of communicative language testing concerning the scoring criteria and the design of the task should be the focus of the future.
文摘The aim of English writing is to test students' language proficiency.The State Education Commission regulates clearly that the result of CET-4 will be considered as Failure if candidates get 0 score in their writing part,regardless of scores from other parts of the paper.Therefore,the importance of writing cannot be ignored.
文摘Test anxiety, which means individuals show excessive worry, nervousness and anxiety in examination contexts, is becoming a more and more common phenomenon. A moderate level of test anxiety will motivate students while a too high or too low level of test anxiety will influence students’ academic performance and their cognitive abilities. Most present researches are focused on secondary school students or on the final exam of a specific school. Few researches on college students and standard tests can be found. Therefore, the researcher took 255 college students as samples to investigate the test anxiety level of non-English majors, their attitudes towards different test tasks (ATDTT) and the correlation between them. The results of the research are as follows: Firstly, the students from non-English majors are at the lower of a moderate test anxiety level in CET-4 and there is no significant gender difference. Secondly, among the four sections in CET-4, students are most positive in writing, less positive in translation and reading, and the least positive in listening. Thirdly, students’ ATDTT in CET-4 are negatively correlated with total test anxiety, cognitive anxiety and emotional anxiety. The researcher hopes this research can offer some help to teachers and students in need.
文摘This qualitative research study attempts to discover the real thinking process of learners who are native Chinese speakers in Academic English Writing(AEW)through interviews.Introspecting an EFL learner’s thinking process in English writing is based on two theories:critical period hypothesis and translanguaging.The results of the study indicate that translanguaging has a positive impact on the English CET-4 writing of learners who lack proficiency in English.For those learners who lack proficiency in the second language,translanguaging is an effective auxiliary tool for them to complete AEW.
文摘Based on the theoretical foundation of thematic progression construction, this paper introduces several common patterns of thematic progression and attempts to find applicability of patterns of thematic progression in the teaching of CET-4 argumentative writing from the perspective of discourse so as to show the implication of these patterns for the teaching of college English writing.
文摘The paper discusses the ＂Writing Test＂ in College English Test - Band Four in two aspects. One is the design of the ＂Writing＂ form; the other is the scoring process. From the discussion the paper comes to a conclusion that the ＂Writing Test＂ in CET-4 should be reformed in two ways： the single style of the ＂Writing＂ structure should be changed to various styles in design, and the ＂global scoring＂ principle used in marking the writing should be changed to ＂local scoring＂. At last, the author suggests some ways of how to put the reforming into reality,
