Establishing the validity of the General English Proficiency Test Reading Component through a criticial evaluation on alignment with the Common European Framework of Reference
The present study aimed to establish an empirical framework for test validation and comparison of level-based test batteries and to identify parameters that are useful to explicitly describe different levels of reading proficiency examinations based on a critical evaluation of alignment of the examinations with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The scope of the study is limited to CEFR B1 and B2 levels. This study applied Weirâs (2005) socio-cognitive validation framework to examine various aspects of the validity of different levels of the GEPT in terms of contextual parameters, cognitive processing skills, and test results. The CEFR and two levels of a CEFR-aligned multilevel test battery, PET and FCE developed by Cambridge ESOL, served as external referents for a review of the similarities and differences between GEPT reading tests targeting CEFR B1 and B2 levels. To establish âsituational and interactional authenticitiesâ (Bachman and Palmer, 1996), this study not only applied automated tools and expert judgment to examine âthe degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a TLU [target language use] taskâ (ibid., 23), but also
Wu, Rachel Yi-Fen
Q330 English as a second language
Establishing the validity of the General English Proficiency Test Reading Component through a criticial evaluation on alignment with the Common European Framework of Reference. The present study aimed to establish an empirical framework for test validation and comparison of level-based test batteries and to identify parameters that are useful to explicitly describe different levels of reading proficiency examinations based on a critical evaluation of alignment of the examinations with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The scope of the study is limited to CEFR B1 and B2 levels. This study applied Weirâs (2005) socio-cognitive validation framework to examine various aspects of the validity of different levels of the GEPT in terms of contextual parameters, cognitive processing skills, and test results. The CEFR and two levels of a CEFR-aligned multilevel test battery, PET and FCE developed by Cambridge ESOL, served as external referents for a review of the similarities and differences between GEPT reading tests targeting CEFR B1 and B2 levels. To establish âsituational and interactional authenticitiesâ (Bachman and Palmer, 1996), this study not only applied automated tools and expert judgment to examine âthe degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a TLU [target language use] taskâ (ibid., 23), but also
establishing validity general english proficiency test reading component evaluation alignment common european framework reference present_study aim_establish empirical framework test validation comparison level based test battery identify parameter useful explicitly describe different_level read proficiency examination base critical_evaluation alignment examination common european framework reference cefr scope_study limit cefr level study apply socio_cognitive validation framework examine_various aspect validity different_level term contextual parameter cognitive_processing skill test result cefr two_level cefr test battery develop cambridge serve external referent review similarity_difference reading test target cefr level establish situational interactional authenticity study apply tool expert judgment examine degree correspondence characteristic give language test_task feature target_language use task also