AnEvaluationtoCurrentCollegeEnglishTestinginChinaAbstract:ThereareseverallargeEnglishtestsinChineseuniversities,suchastheCollegeEnglishTestBand4andBand6,TestforEnglishMajors-4,TestforEnglishMajors-8,PublicEnglishTestSystem,andsoon.Inevitably,someproblemsexistinthesetests.Basedontheoriesofmodernlanguagetesting,thispaperdiscussestheproblemsexistingincurrentcollegeEnglishtesting,thenputforwardsomeadvicetoimprovecollegeEnglishtestinginChina.Testdesignersareexpectedtomaketestsdiversifiedandchooseappropriatetestquestionsandtopicssothatstudents’languagelevelcanbeevaluatedfairlyandscientifically.Keywords:Englishtesting,validity,credibility.1.IntroductionCollegeEnglishtestingisanimportantpartofcollegeEnglishteaching.Studentscanhaveabetterunderstandingoftheirownlanguagecompetenceandlanguageshillsthoughthiskindoftests.Andofcourse,theycanalsofindtheirweaknessandproblemsaboutEnglishlearning.Accordingtotheseproblemsandweakness,studentscanadjusttheirlearningplansorwaysofstudytoimprovetheirlanguageskillsandlanguagecompetence.Anyway,collegeEnglishtestingisveryimportanttocollegestudentsbecauseitisnotonlyawaytotesttheirlanguageability,butalsoawaytofindproblemsandmakeaprogress.Therefore,itisessentialforusandtestdesignerstomakeitclearaboutwhatlanguagecompetenceisandhowtotest,aswellastheproblemsincurrentcollegeEnglishtesting.2.WhatLanguageCompetenceisJustasweknow,themainpurposeoflanguagetestingismakingascientificandfairevaluationaboutthelanguagecompetenceofstudents.However,differentpeopleholddifferentopinionsaboutwhatlanguagecompetenceis.In1960s,Chomskyputforwardthenotionoflanguagecompetenceandlanguageperformance.However,thelanguagecompetencewhichChomskyreferredtoisabstract.Manylinguiststhoughtthattheabstractlanguagecompetenceisnotenoughforhumancommunicationandcommunicationmaycoversmanyothercompetence.Besides,somelinguistsalsoproposedconceptsoflanguagefunctions.Withthedevelopmentofsocietyandmanylinguists’researches,peopleknewmoreaboutlanguagecompetence,andthentheconceptofcommunicativecompetencecameout.Moreover,whatcommunicativecompetenceiscomposedofwhenitisasaentiretyconcernsalottothecontentoflanguagetesting.In1990s,Bachmanproposedanewmodelofcommunicativecompetence.Hethoughtthatcommunicativelanguagecompetenceisthecapacityofcombininglanguageknowledgeandthesituationwherethelanguageisusedtocreateandexplainthemeaningofsomething.Communicativelanguagecompetenceiscomposedoflanguageknowledge,strategiccompetenceandpsychophysiologicalmechanisms.3.HowtoTestTheotherimportantpointoflanguagetestingishowtotestindeed.Asweknow,thepurposeoftestsistoevaluatestudents’languagecompetenceaccordingtoscoresofthetests.Therefore,inordertoensurethevalidityandcredibilityoftests,wehavetoguaranteethatthereisacertainconnectionbetweenthesituationoflanguageinuseandtheformandcontentoftests.Obviously,weshouldfirstlyconsiderlanguageusetaskandsituationaswellastesttaskandsituation,sothattesttaskisaccordanttolanguageusetask.However,toacertaindegree,currentcollegeEnglishtestingignoresthesetwofactorsmoreorless.Consequently,thesecollegeEnglishtestscannotevaluatestudents’languagecompetencescientificallyandfairly.4.ProblemsinCurrentCollegeEnglishTestingEnglishlanguagetestingservesfortheEnglishlanguageteaching.Ofcourse,itshouldhavethefeaturesofscientificity,objectivity,impartialityandveracity.However,inrecentyears,therearesomanyprob...
