265 / 2018-08-31 21:19:24

Mapping the English Literacy Test System onto the China’s Standards of English

alignment; CSE; achievement test; linking process

English Literacy Test System (ELTS) is predated as an achievement test that is designed in alignment with the National English Curriculum (NEC) for Compulsory Education for assessing the English language proficiency of Chinese Junior school students. In this project, procedures are designed to establish empirical evidence of a link between the ELTS-2 which is designed especially for eighth graders at the minimum proficiency level required at NEC level 4 and China’s Standards of English (CSE) level 2 and 3. The Council of Europe’s linking manual provides a suitable framework to put this project into practice. A series of studies were conducted encompassing all four sections of the test, following each of the four steps suggested in the Manual: familiarization, specification, standardization and empirical validation. Familiarization of the teachers with the CSE concept and the CSE scales using the video and materials in the training session in validating the scales. Evidence were collected in the specification stage to build a linking claim of how the test relates to the CSE through a thorough description of the exam content. Descriptors of CSE Level 2 and Level 3 were used in this study. Inter-rater reliability were examined. Descriptors of CEFR A2 were embedded in the questionnaire as well so as to establish the empirical criterion validity for the four skills. We highlighted and piloted the procedures as defined by the manual, provided reflections and offered alternatives to better suite to the low-stakes achievement tests in Chinese context and shed light on the predate manual for relating language examinations to the CSE.