Investigating the Construct Validity of Communicative Proficiency in TEP (Oral) at Level B

TEP (oral), a shortened name of Test of English Proficiency on Speaking, is a three-level English oral test that aims to assess the oral English proficiency of university students in those universities administered and supervised by Beijing Municipal Commission of Education. The development of TEP (Oral) has undergone several years and is still being improved. Based on the test scores from senior students of non-English majors in Beijing International Studies University, the study in this paper attempts to investigate the construct validity of the test on students’ communicative proficiency. It is hoped that the investigation can shed insights on the improvement of the test and provide empirical insights for language teaching in the future. In this study, the investigation is done using both Classical Test Theory and Multi-facet Rasch Model.