HKIER

摘要

N.A.

Abstract

The teaching of Chinese has been, by and large, placing emphasis on writing and reading: the former with training in essay writing whose titles are provided and the latter with ability in comprehension of prescribed text in the form of answering long and short questions. Since the advent of the eighties, the item setters of the public examinations in Hong Kong have been trying to do away with the superficiality and generality of the traditional way of item setting. Instead, they have been focusing on clarity and specificity in order to achieve objectivity when grading examination papers. Undoubtedly, this new direction of setting examination papers in Chinese subject has a good intention, but it seems to overdo the paper setting to the extent that weaknesses of the new approach surpass its merits. The present author intends to compare these new and traditional approaches to item setting in Chinese subject in terms of item quality. This comparison is of significance to item setters in Chinese subject in terms of item quality. This comparison is of significance to item setters in Chinese subject for reference and to teachers of the same subject for instructional considerations.