2013 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 77-84
The Nation-wide University Entrance Examinations are high-stakes tests because their results determine students' futures. Therefore, English listening comprehension tests in the National Center Test have carefully been investigated and discussed before they were implemented since the era of the Joint First-Stage Achievement Test. This report clarifies the lines of discussions in the last quarter of the past century aiming to explain the background and reasons the implementation of listening comprehension tests had repeatedly been postponed, and to unravel the motives for the abrupt announcement of inaugural listening comprehension tests in 2003. The current listening comprehension tests are then examined and evaluated. Finally, this study explores advantageous directions toward reforming large-scale examinations.
