A VALIDATION STUDY ON AN ENGLISH LISTENING EXIT TEST AT A HANOIAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Owing to radical changes in the curriculum, English-majoring students at a celebrated university in teaching foreign languages in Hanoi, Vietnam are now required to take an exit test at the end of the program to see if they could achieve level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The test assumes immense importance for it has a direct influence on students and even on the society, especially when the C1 certificate acts as an embodiment of candidates’ English proficiency to be considered for employment opportunities. The 20xx test was the first exit test of the curriculum; hence, it must be validated to see whether the interpretation and use of the test scores were reasonable or not. With major concern about this phenomenon, the researcher conducted a study titled “A Validation Study on an English Listening exit test at a Hanoian university”, which aimed at offering profound validation evidence either to reinforce or to oppose to the interpretation and use of the listening test scores as a measure of test-takers’ English listening ability. Since no independent validation study had been conducted on the listening test previously, the study also acted as the benchmark for the assessment, amendment, and enhancement of later tests at the examined university. To conduct the research, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to analyze the test aspects scrupulously. The findings indicated that generally, the test demonstrated evidence of validity, thus could act as a meaningful measurement instrument of test-takers’ English language knowledge and listening skill. Nevertheless, there remained certain aspects that needed taking into consideration for radical improvement in test design and development.