The Washback Effect Of Communicative Language Testing On College English Listening Teaching

It is known that language testing plays a more and more important role in our modern social life nowadays. It is used as evaluation tools at important transitional moments in education, in employment and even in going abroad. As far as linguistics is concerned, in the second language acquisition field, there is a very close relationship between language teaching and language testing. Well-made tests can provide a positive and timely feedback for both learners and teachers. That is the Washback effects of language testing on language teaching. Thus, language testing is regarded as an indispensable part in the educational system.Not all language tests are of the same kind. They are different from each other in respects to test method and test purpose (Tim McNamara). In this paper, we will lay emphasis on the communicative testing. With the development and reform of College English teaching, the students-oriented communicative testing aroused close attention. Communicative testing has its own deep theoretical origin. From the early 1970s, the new theory of language and language use started to exercise a significant influence over language teaching and even potentially on language testing. This was Hymes's theory of communicative competence. He saw that mastering a language was more than knowing its rules of grammar. In 1980, Canale and Swain have further enriched Hymes'communicative competence, their theories aim at the interpretation and instruction to the second language teaching and testing. In the early 1990s, Bachman has proposed the new theoretical model of communicative competence, which is made up of three parts:language competence, strategic competence and psychophysiological mechanisms. Thus, with the development of theories of language communication, communicative testing and teaching finally came into being and gradually holds an important position in the second language acquisition field.Traditionally, language ability has been divided into four parts:listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills. Thus, different methods are used to test different kind of language ability. In viewpoint of the functional theory, we learn a certain language to make the communication possible. Hence, listening and speaking, the two most important skills of communication were highlighted. Between these two skills, listening must probably be the most common communication activity. Researchers have long observed people who engaged in communication activities, they found that listening almost covers between 42% and 54% of subjects'communication time, and remains the primary form of verbal communication (Coakley and Wolvin,1990; Bomstrom,1990).In language learning and teaching field, upon the importance and uniqueness of language listening, language testers paid great attention to the listening part. No matter in the National College English Test (CET4 or CET6) or the world-wide examinations (TOEFL or IETLS), testing of the listening part covers a large proportion of the whole examination.To make college English listening teaching efficient and effectively improve the students' listening ability, in this paper, we will have a tentative study on the Washback effect of Communicative Language Testing on college English listening teaching based on the theory of communicative testing. Washback, which will be positive and negative, generally means the effect of language testing on learning and teaching.In the case study, the author has designed a communicative listening testing paper based on the making methods and principles of communicative testing paper. Analyzing the exam results of experimental and conventional classes, we conclude that the communicative listening testing has a positive effect on College English listening teaching. But there are also some disadvantages, for which, the author has proposed certain suggestion for further study and teaching practice.