Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023)
Reading comprehension constitutes an important part of the Chinese National Matriculation English Test (NMET) which influences English teaching practice greatly. Despite the focus of many studies on NMET reforms, content validity, and washback effects, there remains a notable gap in research regardi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-03-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251323524 |
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| author | Dong Wang Zhexi Ye |
| author_facet | Dong Wang Zhexi Ye |
| author_sort | Dong Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Reading comprehension constitutes an important part of the Chinese National Matriculation English Test (NMET) which influences English teaching practice greatly. Despite the focus of many studies on NMET reforms, content validity, and washback effects, there remains a notable gap in research regarding the genre of reading texts in NMET. Drawing on the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) notion of micro-genres, this study analyzes the micro-genres of the reading passages ( n = 240) tested in Chinese NMET from 2004 to 2023. It reveals that these passages cover a wide range of micro-genres. However, the genre distribution is imbalanced with stories leading a dominating role while arguments, text responses and compositional reports get less attention. To improve reading comprehension tasks designed in NMET, the study calls for a more balanced distribution and diverse genres in test propositions and sheds light on the teaching practices reforms in EFL classes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8044285a7fa44ae1b5f26b4a3ca2cc90 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-8044285a7fa44ae1b5f26b4a3ca2cc902025-08-20T02:52:46ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402025-03-011510.1177/21582440251323524Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023)Dong Wang0Zhexi Ye1Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, ChinaJiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, ChinaReading comprehension constitutes an important part of the Chinese National Matriculation English Test (NMET) which influences English teaching practice greatly. Despite the focus of many studies on NMET reforms, content validity, and washback effects, there remains a notable gap in research regarding the genre of reading texts in NMET. Drawing on the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) notion of micro-genres, this study analyzes the micro-genres of the reading passages ( n = 240) tested in Chinese NMET from 2004 to 2023. It reveals that these passages cover a wide range of micro-genres. However, the genre distribution is imbalanced with stories leading a dominating role while arguments, text responses and compositional reports get less attention. To improve reading comprehension tasks designed in NMET, the study calls for a more balanced distribution and diverse genres in test propositions and sheds light on the teaching practices reforms in EFL classes.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251323524 |
| spellingShingle | Dong Wang Zhexi Ye Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) SAGE Open |
| title | Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) |
| title_full | Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) |
| title_fullStr | Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) |
| title_short | Genres of Reading Comprehension Passages in Chinese Mainland National Matriculation English Test (NMET): A Systematic Analysis of the Last Twenty Years (2004–2023) |
| title_sort | genres of reading comprehension passages in chinese mainland national matriculation english test nmet a systematic analysis of the last twenty years 2004 2023 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251323524 |
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