ABSTRACT
This study explores whether candidate’s perception affects the validity of summary writing. It involves two research questions: 1) What is the status of the candidate’s perception of summery writing in National Matriculation English Test? 2) Does perception affect the validation of summary writing? If so, how does perception affect the validation of summary writing? A case study approach is used in this study. At first, the candidate’s perception status was examined through one on one interview, exploration of test papers and observations of writing process, then some relative interventions were carried out in the form of lecture, experience, practice and reading to improve candidate’s perception status. The results showed that the candidate’s scores of summary writing was increased, the ability to differentiate the main ideas and details was fostered, the satisfaction with summary writing was improved. But the ability to express the main idea clearly and logically was not improved obviously, to which the potential explanation is that in the candidate’s mind a long and complicated paragraph is the optimal way to get high marks but not the short and concise paragraph. From the above aspects, we can conclude candidate’s perception does affect the validity of summary writing. Implication was obtained from the study. Besides the fostering of language competence and the training of test strategies, the background information and theoretical basis of constructing tests to improve the perception of a certain test item also need to be taken into study plan.
KEYWORDS
Perception, validity, summary writing