A Critical And Comparative Study Of The High-School Entrance English Examinations Of 1996 And Of 2003 In Liaoning Province

Language tests are a valuable source of information about the effectiveness and quality of language learning and teaching,as a language test,which sets out to measure students' competences as fairly as possible,can be effectively used not only to motivate students to learn,but also as a kind of good teaching device.However,English teaching in high schools has suffered from common shortcomings of higher expenses and yet lower efficiency,partly because of this.So the high school entrance examination in English plays an important role,for it directly affects the backwash effect of English language teaching.This thesis tries to comparatively study the high school entrance examination in English in Liaoning Province of the past eight years(esp.1996 & 2003), arguing some changes and finding out their advantages and disadvantages so that we can have a good backwash on English teaching in high schools.The thesis explores some testing theories as well as the high school entrance examinations in Liaoning Province,with a focus on the changes of English syllabus and the English textbooks and a view of how to have a good backwash on the English teaching and leaning in high schools.The high school entrance examinations in English may exert such a considerable influence on English teachers of high schools that they are crucially instrumental in determining the kind of teaching that takes places before the yearly examination.So it is very important for them to know some testing theories and understand how this English entrance examination influenced the English teaching in high schools in the past and how it will affect the present and future English teaching.