College English Test-Band 4 (CET-4)

In our present study, CET-4 was used to measure the participants’ English learning outcomes. As the most influential English proficiency test throughout colleges in China (Jin, 2008), the CET is administered by the National College English Testing Committee on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Education (Zheng and Cheng, 2008). CET aims to provide an objective evaluation of a student’s overall English proficiency and positively affect EFL teaching at the tertiary level in China (State Education Commission, 1986). The CET-4 test-takers are undergraduate students in China except English majors. Each test takes 125 min to complete, with the total score of 710, containing four parts: writing (15%), listening comprehension (35%), reading comprehension (35%), and translation (15%) (Zheng and Cheng, 2008). The CET has been subjected to rigorous validation processes to ensure its high quality as an assessment tool for undergraduates (Yang and Weir, 1998).