| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 97 === ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to compare the reading comprehension tests between the Elementary Level of General English Proficiency Test (Elementary Level GEPT) and the Basic Competence English Test for junior high school students (BCET). To illustrate, it attempted to examine whether there was any difference between the Elementary Level GEPT and the BCET which were claimed to be appropriate for junior high school graduate. Finally, some pedagogic implications of high school educational English instruction, the English learning materials and English instructors were presented.
To achieve the purposes, the reading comprehension tests of both the BCET from 2001 to 2008 and two practice tests of the Elementary Level GEPT were collected as the corpora of this study. The comprehensibility of the reading topics were assessed on basis of the classified reading topics in the Grade 1-9 Curriculum. The difficulty level of the reading comprehension tests were compared by using both the Flesch Reading Ease Formula and the Fry Readability Formula. To explore the measured reading strategies, the checklist of reading skills classified by Tung (2008) was applied.
Based on the quantitative data analyses, the main findings of this study are concluded as follows:
1. In terms of the reading topics, it seemed to have bearings on the instructional guidelines of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum. Quite a number of the reading issues in both tests devoted heavy weights to the junior high school students’ daily reality.
2. Regarding the readability levels, the reading texts of the both tests were readily comprehensible for test participants.
3. As far as the reading skills were concerned, the macro-skills of reading held the central role; accordingly, without capturing the overall textual meanings, high school test takers could not succeed in the reading comprehension test sections.
According to the findings of the study, the objective of both the Elementary Level GEPTs and BCETs is to evaluate the test takers’ basic knowledge and competence for further learning and future life. Hence, some pedagogical implications for junior high English instructions are given as follows.
1. English should be regarded as more than a school subject to test, but to be a useful means of communication.
2. English instructional materials should be in accordance with the practicality, authenticity, and fun. To be specific, the reading topics should be extensively selected, and relevant to the junior high school student’s daily experiences.
3. The English instructors have to put more emphasis on developing the students’ reading skills which are frequently examined in both tests. Hopefully, skillful practices of frequently measured reading skills would stimulate students’ reading comprehension ability.
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