Washback Effect Of Achievement Oral Test On College English Learning-an Empirical Study

One of the issues which attracted the attention of language testers in the 1990s was the washback effect of test on teaching and learning. Literature indicates that testing washback is a complex concept that becomes even more complicated under variety of interpretations on language teaching and learning. Some progress was made in defining notions such as "impact" and "washback", and a number of studies appeared which analyzed the relationship between tests and the attitude and behavior of teachers and learners. There was a growing awareness of the importance of factors other than test design in determining whether tests would have the impact that was desired. These factors also appear in the literature of educational innovation, and it is to this field that some testers turned for guidance on whether test impact could be predicted or controlled (Wall, 2000:499). And it is also important to investigate the effects of tests on learning. We know very little about students' perceptions of tests and even less about how new tests influence what students know and can do (Wall, 2000:506).The purpose of this study was to investigate how washback effect of a reformed test influenced students' perspectives in their learning. This study was expected to add to the existing literature in testing washback in English as a foreign language context.Questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation were used in this research. The target population was 39 college English teachers and 325 students from GNU and GUT. The survey method (a quantitative method) and interviews and classroom observation (a qualitative method) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed in two phases. Descriptive, bivariate correlation and regression analyses were used to analyze the quantitative data. Content analysis using a note-based and recording was employed to interpret the qualitative data.Findings from this study indicate that the adding of oral part in achievement test has an influential washback effect on students' learning. However, such a washback effect on students' learning is quite superficial. The reason for why it influences learning in such limited level lies in several aspects: i) the problem on validity and reliability of the test; ii) the ineffectiveness of teaching and learning strategies on oral practice; iii) the problem on the management of the test. Based upon the findings, this study makes the following recommendations: 1) include oral and aural assessment in achievement test; 2) innovating the Oral Test; 3) highlighting teachers' role in fostering positive washback; 4) providing detailed and timely feedback of scoring; 5) application of self-evaluation mechanism.