August 2025 Issue
MEASURING INTEGRATED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY IN JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOLS: EVIDENCE FROM THE C-TEST
MAI ARISUDA
Saishigakusha Junior High School, Japan
AKIHIRO ITO
Seinan Gakuin University, Japan
ABSTRACT
This study examines the applicability of the C-Test as a reliable and valid assessment tool for measuring English proficiency among Japanese senior high school students. The C-Test, developed by Klein-Braley and Raatz, is internationally recognized for its brevity and high internal consistency. Despite these advantages, its use in Japanese secondary education remains limited. In this study, a five-passage C-Test was administered to 59 students at a vocational high school, and its internal consistency, construct validity (via factor analysis), and criterion-related validity (via correlations with GTEC, a widely used English proficiency test in Japan) were examined. A post-test survey captured students’ subjective evaluations. The results showed high reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.93), unidimensionality (76.4% variance explained), and moderate-to-high correlations with General Tests of English Communication (GTEC) scores (r = 0.66 overall). Additionally, 94.9% of students reported that the C-Test was less stressful than the GTEC. These findings suggest that the C-Test is a low-stress, time-efficient assessment tool that aligns well with existing proficiency measures, especially in resource-limited contexts. While pedagogically promising, generalizability is limited by the localized sample. Future studies should clarify the construct domain of the C-Test within the Japanese curriculum, align scores with performance benchmarks, and explore broader applications across diverse school types. A limitation of this study is that participants were drawn from a single vocational high school, which constrains the generalizability of the findings.
KEYWORDS
C-Test, high school, English proficiency, reliability, validity