A Study on the Quality of Lingnan’s Written Chinese Proficiency Test for the Hong Kong Region and Its Implications for University Chinese Teaching

This article aims to investigate the quality of Lingnan University’s Written Chinese Proficiency Test for the Hong Kong Region through quantitative and qualitative research on the students’ test results over the past decade. The analysis reveals that modern Chinese polyphonic polysemous characters and classical Chinese comprehension are the most difficult items for university students. Strengths and weaknesses in students’ Chinese abilities have been identified and analyzed via individual test item’s difficulty index value. Analysis of the test validity and reliability via Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis has also been conducted as far as possible in order to examine the quality of the Test. The design of the Chinese Proficiency Test regarding Chinese-use ability at university level is discussed, and evaluation and suggestions are provided for modern Chinese teaching and learning for nurturing relevant language abilities for Hong Kong students in future, such as teaching of modern Chinese reading and increasing the classical Chinese component in credit-bearing compulsory University Chinese courses. Placing more focus on close-reading and appreciation of exemplary reading materials may also be an effective way to improve students’ writing skills.

Keywords

written Chinese language testing university Chinese teaching

source

International Journal of Chinese Language Education; Dec 2022; Issue No. 12; p.81 - 98

Publisher

Department of Chinese Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong
Chinese Language Program, Columbia University
Chung Hwa Book Co. (H.K.) Ltd.

Language

Chinese

ISSN

2520-7733 (Print); 2521-4241 (Online)