A Case Study On Washback Effect Of The TEM8 Restructuring

The New Syllabus for TEM8 (2004) emphasizes that students should improve their awareness to cultural diversity and it adds testing "English expertise" as one objective. Since 2005, TEM8 has started to adopt the new test format. The new TEM8 after restructuring prioritize English comprehensive ability.As an explorative study, the present research focuses on the TEM8 restructuring and its washback effects on English teaching and learning. The investigation involves 83 English majors and 6 English teachers of Liaocheng University in Shandong Province. A survey was conducted and classroom observations were made to collect the data needed. The major findings of the present study are briefly summarized as follows: Firstly, the TEM8 restructuring has washback effects on English teaching and learning: the restructuring of testing time and weighting influences the depth and sequence of learning and teaching; the restructuring of testing content impacts learning materials, learning and teaching degree, learning and teaching methods; the restructuring of testing on competence has effects on learning and teaching objectives, methods and contents. Secondly, the TEM8 restructuring exerts more positive effects than negative ones to English learning and teaching.Based on the results reported in the investigation, the author puts forward some strategies for promoting positive effects of the TEM8 restructuring, such as taking more authentic materials in the TEM8, adopting various answer formats, testing the General Knowledge section deeper and broader, and providing detailed and timely feedback of TEM8 scoring.