| "Backwash effect" usually refers to the effect of tests on language teaching and learning. It has become the focus of debate these years. Scholars abroad have done a great deal of research on it from theory to practice, resulting in not only enriching the theories related to test but also prompting greatly the development of English teaching. However, in China, there is very little theoretical or practical research of backwash from language tests, especially from the field of NMET. NMET (Shanghai) has undergone several changes in the past years, some of which are related to reading comprehension, but to date there has been little research on its backwash effect.Against this background, the author of the dissertation, under the guidance of the test theory and after analyzing the question types and interviewing teachers and students of high schools as well as a few NMET designers, has conducted elementary research on the backwash effect of reading question types on English teaching and learning in high schools. Besides, the questionnaires under the study have provided the author with some suggestions and advice from teachers and students on the design of the questions and the problems of English teaching and learning in high schools. The subjects of research, interviews and questionnaires include4NMET designers,21teaching researchers,35teachers,211students from two high schools in Shanghai.This study is intended to find answers to the following questions:What is the backwash of reading of NMET on English teaching and learning at high schools? Which questions have positive effects? Which questions have negative effects? How to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative ones? Explorations on the approaches to the improvement of the reading comprehension question types and the English teaching and learning at high schools are also conducted.The results of research show that there are both positive and negative effects caused by the changes of the reading comprehension part in NMET (Shanghai) on English teaching and learning in high schools. The positive effects are that they can promote the completion of teaching tasks and motivate teachers’teaching and students’learning, thus helping students think more broadly, improving their competence in solving practical problems and enriching their horizon of knowledge. While the negative ones are that some of the question types remain stereotyped, making teachers and students summarize the laws on how to deal with the questions in tests. This work of summarizing the laws, which is more popular in normal teaching practice at high schools, may affect the development of students’ comprehensive capability of language.Based on the research findings and with an attempt to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative ones, this thesis tries to make some suggestions and advice on the designing of the question types and the English teaching and learning at high schools.This thesis consists of seven chapters, with the first one introducing the issue under study and the relevant literature. Chapter two provides the development of language testing, the relevant theory basis, and discourse analysis theory. Chapter three gives a detailed introduction of reading comprehension of NMET (Shanghai), and offers a clear picture of the reading items past and present. Chapter four introduces the issues, tools, procedures of the research project and the people interviewed, surveyed or tested in the study. Data analyses and conclusions derived from them are provided in Chapter five, followed by suggestions and advice on the designing of reading question items, English teaching and learning at high schools and the limitations of the study in Chapter six.Finally, the last chapter comes to the conclusion that reading items of NMET (Shanghai) have both positive and negative effects on English teaching and learning in high schools. Accordingly, appropriate measures should be taken to make full use of the positive effects and reduce the negative effects. |
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