ABSTRACT

Practical English Test for Colleges (Level B), a national standard test, is set up for students of higher vocational education and adult higher education, which is an important criterion to test junior college students’ English proficiency. In PRETCO-B, reading comprehension makes up a large proportion of the total points. However, many test takers cannot get high score in reading comprehension.

The study analyzes the test paper of PRETCO-B from June, 2012 to December, 2016 in Chongqing and the performance in reading comprehension, aiming to find the roots of points-losing and put forward some suggestion of improving reading techniques.

The study analyzes the main characteristics of reading comprehension from three aspects, including question types, stylistic features and length of the passage. From the analysis of question types, it can be learned that there are three main types of question, including theme question, detail question, inference question. And Task 4 of reading comprehension in PRETCO-B is matching item. The analysis of stylistic features shows that exposition and practical writing are the main genres of the passages. From the analysis of length of passages, it can be noticed that that the length does not have a negative impact on the understanding. Moreover, data analysis is to analyze the reasons of the poor performance and put forward some advice for English teaching and learning.

The data show that the validity of the PRETCO-B meets the requirement of standardized test. In order to get high scores in reading comprehension, students should enlarge and accumulate their vocabulary and remember the grammar rules and then apply them to English reading practice. Teachers should pay attention to the application in reading teaching in daily life, who should play the role as a guide and prompter to pay enough attention to basic knowledge of English and focus on improving students’ ability of intensive reading. And teachers should be an organizer to foster students’ interest in class. 

Key words: English  Reading Comprehension   Paper Test   Data Analysis Method  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

中文摘要

CHAPTER ONE  INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY-1

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY-2

1.3 RESEARCH METHOD-2

1.3.1 Test-2

1.3.2 Data Analysis-2

CHAPTER TWO  LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 ANALYSIS OF THE READING COMPREHENSION OF PRETCO TEST PAPER-4

2.2 THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING-5

2.3 STUDY ON THE SKILLS OF READING COMPREHENSION-6

2.4 STUDY ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY OF READING COMPREHENSION IN PRETCO-B-8

2.5 SUMMARY-8

CHAPTER THREE  ANALYSIS OF TEXT AND 

PERFORMANCE-10

3.1 ANALYSIS OF QUESTION TYPES-10

3.1.1 Theme Question-11

3.1.2 Inference Question-12 

3.1.3 Detail Question-14

3.1.4 Analysis of Task 4-16

3.2 ANALYSIS OF THE STYLISTIC FEATURES OF THE PASSAGES-18

3.2.1 Classification of Exposition-19

3.2.1.1 Exposition about Object-19

3.2.1.2 Exposition about Logic and Reason-20

3.2.2 Topic Analysis Of Practical Writing-21

3.3 ANALYSIS OF LENGTH OF THE PASSAGES-21

3.4 ANALYSIS OF THE REASONS OF POOR PERFORMANCE-27

3.4.1 Difficulty-27

3.4.2 The Lack of Ability to Analyze Structure and Grammar-28

3.4.3 Insufficient Vocabulary-29

CHAPTER FOUR  SUGGESTION ON TEACHING AND LEARNING-32

4.1 SUGGESTION ON LEARNING-32

4.2 SUGGESTION ON TEACHING-33

CHAPTER FIVE  CONCLUSION-35

BIBLIOGRAPHY-37