A Pilot Study Based on Rasch into the Appropriateness of the TOEIC Bridge Test for Chinese Students: Status Quo and Prospect

Abstract

The present research reports carefully the situation of language testing for vocational students in China. As China is now open wider to the outside world, vocational students, after graduation, are required to use more and more English for international communication. Such an ability to communicate in English, the listening comprehension in particular, has become essential for success in business, workplace and life across China as well as around the world. Therefore, the authors point out that China needs a more objective measure of English proficiency for lower-intermediate-level learners particularly the vocational students. Based on this, the appropriateness of TOEIC Bridge Test focusing on listening comprehension part to Chinese vocational students as a measure of English listening comprehension skill was evaluated using correlations between the scores of listening comprehension part of TOEIC Bridge Test and that of a local English test followed by a questionnaire to confirm the validity of the scores thus obtained. The purpose of conducting such a study is to explore the feasibility of using TOEIC Bridge test in place of some local tests. The research report was submitted to the concerned department of higher education for reference. Apart from this, some common practices under the principles of language testing theory like IRT are also touched upon for popularization.

This project is financially supported by the Supervisory Committee of ELT in Vocational Higher Education, Ministry of Education, P.R. China in 2010–2011.