ABSTRACT
The National College English Testing Committee (NCETC) of China is an academic organization appointed by the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, the People’s Republic of China. The Committee is in charge of the design and development of the College English Test (CET ⎡大学英语四、六级考试⎦), a national standardized English language test for college and university students in China. Since its inception in 1987, the CET has attracted an increasing number of test-takers every year, and its population has become the world’s largest for any test of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Members of the current NCETC consist of 25 Chinese university professors whose research areas focus on English language teaching and testing. This chapter will fi rst trace the history of the NCETC from its formation in the mid-1980s, when a group of Chinese language testing experts felt there was a need for an English language test to complement the teaching of English in colleges and universities in China. This chapter will then introduce details of the operational structure of the NCETC, which was designed to ensure the successful development and implementation of this large-scale test. As a wellestablished EFL test, the quality of the CET is the result, to a large extent, of the Committee’s continuous efforts in pursuing the validity, reliability, and practicality of the test. A major part of this chapter will be devoted to the role played by the NCETC in maintaining the test’s professional standards. In response to changing social needs and to accommodate changing teaching requirements, the NCETC has made substantial changes to the content and format of the CET and also its score reporting system in recent years. However, the real challenge facing the NCETC is to improve the test’s washback and impact on English language teaching and learning at the tertiary level in China. This chapter will end with a discussion of the mission of the Committee in the twenty-fi rst century.
