Content Validity of Language Knowledge Sections of Four National Matriculation English Test Papers in China

This study attempts to analyze the content validity of the language knowledge sections of four National Matriculation English Test (NMET) papers administered in 2012 from the perspective of the New Senior English Curriculum Standards (NSECS) and the 2012 test syllabus in order to see to what extent the language knowledge sections of the NMET meet the requirements of the NSECS and specifications of the test syllabus. The results show that all items of the language knowledge sections of four NMET papers had relatively high content validity with its design corresponding to the requirements of the NSECS and the 2012 test syllabus in terms of basic grammar and grammatical use of vocabulary. However, some deficiencies were found which might affect the content validity of the NMET. Most test items of the language knowledge sections were multiple-choice questions so that the expected responses were limited to selected production responses. It is suggested that limited and extended production responses should be increased in order to improve quality of the language knowledge section. The types of test items should also be diversified to examine test takers' higher level oflanguage knowledge.