College english test: To be abolished or to be polished

Abstract

College English Test (CET) is a national standardized achievement test in mainland China. As a test with government backing, its passing rate has been used as one important index to evaluate higher institutions’ teaching quality, which has pushed institutions to improve the teaching facilities and enhance quality of teaching staff for College English. It is believed that this has ever promoted the rapid growth of undergraduates’ English level and accumulated knowledge for test development. Meanwhile Chinese society has imposed upon CET extra value, which makes it a high-stakes test and its negative impacts are emerging. It has resulted in test-oriented education and become a hurdle to College English reform. In addition its validity and fairness are constantly being challenged. After carefully balancing its positive and negative backwash to College English teaching and learning, I propose that a substantial reform of the present CET might be a feasible solution. Government’s withdraw of its administrative role from CET and a change from achievement to proficiency test should be the orientation of reform. Furthermore, the validity of the test needs to be further improved.