Against the predicaments including inadequate English competence among private university students, inefficient preparation for CET-4 reading, and disjointed teaching, learning and assessment in conventional instruction, this study constructs a CET-4 reading teaching framework underpinned by the integrated Teaching-Learning-Assessment (TLA) approach and conducts a five-week instructional intervention. The research subjects consist of 99 students in the experimental group, 725 peers with equivalent proficiency forming the ordinary control group, and another 344 high-proficiency students as the advanced control group. Adopting a quasi-experimental between-group comparison design, the research employs SPSS to implement one-way ANOVA and correlation analysis for effect verification. Statistical results demonstrate that the proposed pedagogy significantly facilitates learners’ reading scores; the experimental group presents marginally significant score disparities against the advanced control group. Furthermore, CET-4 reading performance registers a strong positive correlation with overall CET-4 scores, and precise lexical mastery constitutes the core determinant of improving candidates’ pass rates. It is verified that the hybrid mode combining embedded formative assessment with authentic past CET-4 test papers matches the academic characteristics of students from private universities, bearing prominent practical value and popularization potential.
