| In October2010, Guangdong Education Examinations Authority officially declared thatthe National Matriculation English Test Spoken English Test (NMET-SET) would beintroduced into the existing NMET. Since the NMET-SET has been conducted widely inGuangdong province, the act triggered a massive impact on educators, government authoritiesin education, test constructors, teachers, students and parents. This kind of impact is called"washback" in language education.Hughes’(1989:1) definition "Washback is the effect of testing on teaching and learning"is adopted in this thesis. On the basis of the differences between washback effect’s nature andextent, washback effect is classified as positive and negative washback; overt and covertwashback. The focus of the study is put on the positive and negative washback effect.Although test washback or impact has received much attention in educational circles,insufficient research has been done to explore its nature (Alderson&Wall,1995; Bailey,1996; Cheng,1997; Hamp-Lyons,1997). The Washback Hypothesis is unduly simplistic andmakes too many untested assumptions about how people are influenced (Alderson&Wall,1993:119). Hopefully, the study will make some contributions to the improvement of theabove situation.The purpose of the present study is to find out whether the NMET-SET has achieved itswashback effect, if yes, positive or negative? For this purpose, a two-school-year trackinginvestigation was conducted on the basis of Alderson&Wall’s Washback Hypotheses (1993,1996) and Hughes’ PPP Washback Model (Hughes,1993). School ELT practices before andafter the NMET-SET reform need to be investigated and compared. The study helps to unveilthe differences between what ELT practices were/are like before/after the NMET-SET reformin senior high schools in Guangdong province. SPSS and Microsoft Office Excel wereutilized to help analyze statistical data in the study.To be specific, two research questions are put forward:1. What influence does theNMET-SET has on oral English teaching perception of senior high school English teachers?2.What influence does the NMET-SET has on oral English teaching strategies of senior highschool English teachers?In the study, factors that contribute to the test’s success or failure in this mission need tobe considered. A multi-method design was devised, using Interview, Classroom Observation,and Questionnaire to collect data from9senior high school teachers from Guangzhou No.13Middle School. Pulling all of evidence together, the conclusion is drawn that the NMET-SET has so farachieved both positive and negative washback effect on English teaching in senior highschools. These findings demonstrate that a high-stakes test may be a powerful encouragementto "teaching to the test" or "teaching to the format", rather than an effective means to promotelearning or development of the knowledge and ability to use language communicatively. Thestudy manifests that the NMET-SET influences teachers’ perception and strategies towardsspoken English teaching in senior high schools. After the NMET-SET reform, there existssignificantly stronger washback on senior English teachers on the aspects of thecomprehension of the NMET-SET’s content and criteria, belief towards the NMET-SET’sstimulating and reflective function as well as the perspective that the NMET-SET increasedthe difficulty of teaching. After the NMET-SET reform, senior English teachers more inclinedto agree that they practice students’ spoken English according to the demand of teachingcurriculum and normal teaching sequence. They strongly agreed that practicing students’spoken English is the teaching difficulty but not teaching focus and inclined to expresssignificantly stronger agreement to utilize a variety of teaching methods and expose studentsto English teaching acoustic materials (such as movies, songs etc.) aiming to improvestudents’ spoken English ability. |
