A Study On The Awareness Of The Washback Of CET-4Listening Test On College English Listening Teaching And Learning

Washback, which can be positive, or negative, generally refers to the influence oftesting on teaching and learning. It is a very important phenomenon in language education.During the past years, a large number of studies of washback effects of language testinghave been conducted abroad (Alderson&Wall,1993; Hughes,1989,1993; Bachman&palmer1996; Alderson&Hamp-Lyons1996, etc), such as TOEFL and IELTS. In China,College English Test Band Four (abbreviated as CET-4hereafter) has drawn muchattention，which is regarded as one of the standardized foreign languages tests in China(Cheng Jianlin,2000). In our country, a lot of discussions about College English teachingand testing have been carried out, and lots of proposals and methods have been put forward.But there are a few studies have been done on the washback effects of CET-4, especiallyon the washback effects of CET4listening test on college English listening teaching andlearning. Therefore it is valuable to carry on studies of CET-4listening test.The study is to explore three research questions: what are the college students’perceptions about the current situation of College English listening teaching， What are thestudents’ perceptions of the impacts of CET-4listening test on listening learning incollege，What are the teachers’ perceptions of the impacts of CET-4listening test onlistening teaching in college? In the study，three kinds of instruments (questionnaires,interviews and classroom observations) are employed. The subjects in this study are25college English teachers and196sophomore students in Shanxi Datong University.The first finding in this study proves that CET-4listening test has crucial influence onCollege English listening teaching and learning, and such influence is both positive andnegative. The second finding is that positive washback of CET-4listening test outweighsits negative washback in the first year’s listening teaching and learning. The third finding isthat teacher factors may intensify or diminish the negative washback effect.