Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Studies on Language Ability Scale
This part will review the key concepts and some related researchesof language ability scale, which aims at analyzing the results of previousstudies and lays the foundation for the descriptive framework andmethodology of this study.Language Ability Scale, which is also known as Language AbilityStandard, is a tool for description or evaluation of language ability leveland a series of description of language users' ability to use a certainlanguage. Generally, each scale is divided into several different levelsfrom low to high that describe the different stages of language abilitydevelopment (HanBaocheng, 2006:443).The research of language ability scale has a history of over half acentury. In the 1950s, the United States put forward the first languageability scale-FSI. Based on FSI, the United States launched the ILR andACTFL. Under the influence of FSI, regions of the world developed thelanguage ability scale, including ISLPR in Australia, CLB in Canada,ALTE, CEFR in Europe and so on. In recent years, domestic scholars conducted research on languageability scale and achieved some results. To investigate and analyze themain language ability scale at home and abroad is of great reference value to develop a common scale of National Matriculation EnglishExamination in our country.
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1.2 Studies on Language Competence
People's opinions on language competence often are affected bylanguage competence concepts. Under the influence of different languagecompetence concepts, people will put forward different hypotheses oflanguage competence and different descriptions (Yang Huizhong，2012；17). Since the 20 centuiy, there are many influential languagecompetence concepts, that is, structural language competence, languagecompetence concept of generative linguistics, communicative languagecompetence, cognitive processing and Cognitive Processing Ability ofDiscourse Information. This part will review some related studies on language competence,which aims at making us have a clear understanding of theoretic basis oflanguage ability scale and finding out the framework of languagecompetence for this study. Structural linguistics holds the view that language system is made upof pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. It attaches great importanceto the detailed descriptions and classifications of elements andcomponents at all levels in inner language system, such as phonemes,words, phrases and sentences. Under the influence of structural linguisticsand behavioral psychology, Lado (1961) and Carroll (1968) proposed the"Skills and Elements" language competence model. They believe thatlanguage competence can be divided into four language skills, listening,speaking, reading, writing, and several language elements includingpronunciation, vocabulary, grammar. This "Skills and Elements" modelhas a great effect on the development and research of language testing,which results in discrete point test and standardized language test on alarge scale (Wang Shuhua, 2012： 9). There are two limitations of .thismodel, first, this model does not pay attention to the interpretation oflanguage competence. It distinguishes language skills from languageknowledge, but never illuminates the differences and relations betweenthem. Second, the model ignores the context of language usage.
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Chapter Two Theoretic Basis
2.1 Communicative Language Ability
In the 1970s, sociolinguistics developed a lot. During this period oftime, sociolinguistics had a great effect on language ability theories.Under this circumstances, people realized that mastering languageelements and combination rules or aggregation rules in language teachingactivities was far from enough, learners should pay attention to peoplewho involve in the communication and their abilities to adapt to thecommunicative scenes, communicative intentions, communicative waysand topics, and then communicative competence theory came into being.Psycholinguistic-sociolinguistics era arrived.Communicative competence was first presented by Dell Hymes inhis paper named On Communicative Competence in 1972. He holds theview that people's capacity includes language knowledge and ability foruse of language. Communicative competence is made up of fourparameters, (1) Grammaticality, whether or to what extent, a certain viewcan form. (2) Suitability, to what degree, a certain view is feasible. (3) Appropriateness, whether a certain view is appropriate. (4) Reality,whether a certain view becomes a reality. In Hymes，opinion,communicative competence should include not only language knowledgeand ability for use of language, but also a kind of judgment ofpsychological feasibility, cultural appropriateness and usage frequency.Hymes' Communicative competence theory is another revolution afterChomsy's transformational generative grammar in 1960s.
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2.2 Cognitive Processing Ability of Discourse Information
Based on system theory, information theory and control theory,Deng Jie (2012) put forward information ability construct and discussedtarget construct of language testing from the perspective of discourseinformation processing.According to the viewpoints of information theory, discourseinformation can be defined as the new contents which can reduce oreliminate the uncertainty of the recipient. Accordingly, discourseinformation amount is defined as the reduction degree or eliminationdegree of uncertainty. It has great significance in the study of discourseinformation cognitive processing. Firstly, the information value ofdiscourse depends on whether the uncertainty of the recipient can bereduced or eliminated. Before becoming specific language, abstractlanguage cannot eliminate the uncertainty. So, we believe that languageisn't equal to information, in fact, information refers to verbalinformation or discourse information, besides, information is theuncertain content or unknown content that can remove. Secondly, theamount of information refers to the amount of the unknown content, andthe known content cannot be included into the calculation range ofinformation amount, as the known content cannot eliminate theuncertainty. Therefore, the more unknown information there is, the moreamount of information there will be. Or, the more known informationthere is, the less amount of information there will be.
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Chapter Three Methodology........ 35
3.1 Research Design .......35
3.2 Research Procedure .......39
3.2.1 Data Collection....... 40
3.2.2 Data Analysis....... 42
Chapter Four Results & Discussion....... 45
4.1 Construction of LAA Scale....... 45
4.1.1 Collection of "Can-do" Statements....... 45
4.1.2 Modification of "Can-do" Statements....... 45
4.2 Validation of LAA Scale....... 54
4.2.1 Analytical Validation....... 54
4.2.2 Quantitative Validation .......57
Chapter Four Results & Discussion
4.1 Construction of LAA Scale
Based on the literature review and theoretic basis, especially therequirements of English Curriculum Standards in high school andNational Matriculation Examination Syllabus in China, 44 can-dostatements were concluded from each lexical question of each test paperof NMEE, by one expert's judgment after doing all the test papers withthe help of software Antconc 3.2.2.. And at the same time the amount oflexical questions which support each can-do statement was collected inthe process (See Appendix I ). Among the 44 can-do statements, No.5,29，32 and 39 are based on literature review on English synonyms.While the rest can-do statements are based on Qu Yixian (2012). First, merge some repetitive and crossed can-do statements. Forexample, the usage of article phrase belongs to the application ofindefinite article, definite article and zero article. What's more, sixcan-do statements which refer to common indefinite pronoun should beclassified into one statement.Second, make the can-do statements more concise. Each can-dostatement is changed into short and clear sentence. For example, "Canuse indefinite article to make general references" is changed into "Canidentify indefinite article." There are many other similar examples toshow the improvement of can-do statements.
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Conclusion
This paper has answered two research questions that were putforward in chapter three.Firstly, based on literature review and theoretic basis, it's easy torealize that the descriptions of language competence at home and abroadare mainly based on CLA. CLA focuses on the constitute research oflanguage ability, but lacks the quantitative analysis of language ability. InChina, the can-do statements of English Curriculum Standards andNational Matriculation Examination Syllabus are too general and vague,which bring difficulties to paper designing and evaluation of NationalMatriculation English Examination. Taking the above situation intoconsideration, this thesis, which was based on Cognitive ProcessingAbility of Discourse Information and CLA, analyzed the can-dostatements of the lexical analysis ability of NMEE, in accordance withCEFR, Yang Huizhong(2012), Wang Shuhua (2012), English CurriculumStandards and National Matriculation Examination Syllabus. Beforecollecting can-do statements, collecting and revising all test paper ofNMEE in all provinces from 1985 to 2012 was the preparation of theresearch. And then after ten experts' judgment and revise of eachcollected can-do statement which was concluded from the lexical itempart of NMEE, 25 can-do statements of lexical analysis ability have beenobtained. Each statement was supported by many items of test paper ofNMEE. Experts' opinions on can-do statements were basically consistent.
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Reference (omitted)