A Brief Analysis of the Writing Part of CET4

【Abstract】The College English Test Band 4（CET4）， is a nationwide English proficiency test， the difficulty level of this test various from student to student.However， the pass rate of CET4 in not high in China. This essay will analyze the writing part of CET4 from the topic choosing， the difficulty level， evaluation standard and whether the evaluation is reasonable or not.

【Key words】CET4； analysis； writing part

1. Introduction

The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to communicate. In China， an important method to communication in English is writing. Therefore， the ability of learners to read and write is particularly important. So， writing is an important part in English tests， and the ability to write can have a big impact on the overall performance in the exam. It is important to understand the nature of writing activities， the methods of testing and the significance of writing.

2. The nature of writing

In 1960s， there are two kinds of definition of writing， one is results-oriented， the other is process-oriented.In early 1960， the results-oriented teaching method is popular， teachers using this teaching method to teach writing always pay more attention to students imitative ability. They like to give students an example， and then introduce the structure， words usage， grammar and so on to students. After that， students will be given a new topic， and imitate to write a composition by what they learned from the example.

However， as for the Process-oriented approach argue that writing activities not only includes language skills and discourse competence， but also includes students interest and familiarity to the given topic， excepts that， the culture will also have some impact on students performance in their writing activities. The process-oriented approach disagree that it is definitely wrong that just let students imitate others works， it includes many social and psychological factors. Until 1970s， process-oriented teaching method has become very popular for reforming English writing teaching. This teaching method focus on how to choose the writing topic， how to arrange the writing content， and how to adjust the words according to the relationship between the writer and the reader. Silva（1980： 18） thinks this teaching method is better than the results-oriented teaching method， because it is a kind of teaching method which involves the construction of knowledge， and the dissemination of knowledge， it can also construct a purposeful and efficient communication between writers and readers.endprint

3. The meaning of analyzing Chinas writing tests

As it is mentioned above， In China， an important method to communication in English is writing， and writing is an important part in all language tests. Therefore， it is very important to analyze the writing part from the topic choosing， the difficulty level， evaluation standard and whether the evaluation is reasonable or not in Chinese English tests. It can help both the teacher and researcher to have a further study to how to design a more appropriate writing task.

4. Information about CET4

College English test band 4 is a large-scale standardized test and national education examination which is designed to satisfy the education requirement and it is organized by the ministry of education. Since January 2005， it have been held twice a year， and its purpose is to test college students English ability， and its evaluation is objective and accurate.

The test has four parts， listening， reading， cloze， matching tasks and translation， and the score is 710， students can pass the test with 425.The college English test provides an objective description of the English level of our college students. Due to the extensive use of modern education statistical methods in the college English test， the scores are treated with equivalent value and unchanged.

5. The writing part of CET4

The writing part of CET4 accounted for all of the 15%.

Example（2015.12）： Part I： Writing （30 minutes）

For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Learning is a daily experience and lifetime mission.”You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120 words but no more than180words.

6. A Brief Analysis of the Writing Part of CET4

“As Heaton（2000： 135） divided the writing skill into 5 parts， language use， mechanical skills， treatment of content， stylistic skills and judgement skills. From these 5 aspects， several writing ability are included in， for example the ability to write correct and appropriate sentence， the ability to spell and use the words appropriately， the ability to manipulate sentences and paragraphs， and use language effectively， the ability to select， organize and order relevant information.”（Zhou， 2012： 272）. According to Heatons definition of writing skills， and the writing abilities explained that included in the skills， and from the topic chosen we can say that the writing part of CET4 can choose an appropriate and a familiar topic to test students writing ability. Students with a familiar topic can think much and write more， and then all the writing abilities can be easily tested， and once a topic was chosen well， the difficulty level is relatively moderate. However， from the scoring criteria， we can find that the criteria pays much attention to the usage of words and language error， as it was mentioned above， writing not only includes language knowledge， but also many social and psychological factors. So， testers should not only score a work by how well the students use the words and the sentences structure， they should also find what the testees what to express by their writing if their work with a little more language errors and misspelling.

7. Conclusion

As the CET4 is a nationwide English test and the aim of this test is to help teaching， so from all above， teachers in China who still use the results-oriented teaching method should make some changes and pay more attentions to the topic and students interest in writing， and take the culture and psychological factors into their teaching preparation. Besides， doing more research， reading more research paper and learning more English writing theories of how to teaching English writing is also important to teach well.

References：

[1]J.B.Heaton，Writing English Language Tests[M].Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.2000.

[2]皺申.语言测试[M].上海外语教育出版社，2012.

作者简介：王璐璐（1991-），女，陕西宝鸡人，宝鸡文理学院外语系，研究方向：学科教学（英语）。endprint