The Backwash Of Communicative Language Testing On College English Teaching

With the coming of Information era, English is gaining its proper status in China. The core of English teaching in universities becomes the development of the students' ability to use English in communication. Thus the traditional teacher-centered teaching method in English class is gradually replaced by a more communicative student-centered one. However, the results of this new language teaching means are still evaluated by the conventional tests. As the partner of teaching, language testing is expected to exert beneficial effects (or backwash) on language teaching. When a language test cannot satisfy the need, or even hinders the realization of teaching objectives, it should be either got thoroughly out of the way, or improved. In China, there is an apparent tendency that both the college English testing and the national College English Test (CET) are no longer helpful to college English teaching. Then Communicative Language Testing (CLT) requires application.This thesis pertains to the theoretical basis, essential characteristics, nature and application of CLT. A combination of quantitative and qualitative study is used in the research. Firstly, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 30 teachers and 200 students, which indicates the testing used on campus cannot stimulate English teaching and learning. Then a experiment was carried out in two classes to show that the CLT has a beneficial effect on college English teaching.Finally, some suggestions for the future construction of CLT are provided, such as the establishment of university-based communicative testing, and the way of application of CLT.