A Study Of The Backwash Effect Of English Testing On Teaching

Language testing is an important link in the process of foreign language teaching,which has an important impact on all aspects of the process of foreign language teaching.This influence is often called the backwash effect of language testing on teaching by linguists.The language test studied in this paper refers to College Entrance English Examination.In 2014,China launched the latest reform plan of College Entrance Examination.It was first implemented in Zhejiang and Shanghai in 2017 and in other provinces and cities in China in 2018.Based on this background,this paper studies the backwash effect of language testing on teaching by selecting English test papers for College Entrance Examination in Zhejiang and Shanghai as samples.Finally,the paper puts forward some feasible suggestions to promote the positive backwash effect of CET,and puts forward some suggestions for middle schools to correctly handle the relationship between CET and teaching,so as to make full use of the positive backwash effect of CET on teaching and learning.In this study,literature research and comparative research methods are used to analyze and research.Firstly,it analyses the reform of college entrance examination and college entrance English examination,focusing on the background,value orientation and specific content of college entrance English examination reform,and analyses the new challenges faced by college entrance English examination.Secondly,focusing on the theme of this study,we have consulted the existing literature on English testing,college entrance English examination reform and backwash.We have deeply explored the educational philosophy principles of college entrance English examination reform.We have mainly elaborated and analyzed Jaspers’ existentialist philosophy,the essence of generative education and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.Then,it introduces the connotation,classification and main theoretical models of backwash,and defines the specific meaning of backwash in this study.Then,the most direct influential college entrance English examination papers in the reform of college entrance examination are selected for comparative study.The latest round of college entranceEnglish examination papers in Zhejiang and Shanghai,which were first implemented,are selected for comprehensive and in-depth comparative analysis from six aspects: test text,test paper structure,listening and speaking structure,the proportion of subjective and objective topics,discourse topic and competence objectives.Then,on the basis of the above empirical analysis,this paper further explains the backwash effect of college entrance English examination reform on English teaching in senior high schools from four aspects: the determination of teaching objectives,the optimization of teaching content,the improvement of curriculum implementation and the change of teaching evaluation,and explores the backwash mechanism and content of college entrance English examination reform on English teaching in senior high schools.Finally,on the basis of theoretical research and empirical research,this paper puts forward some thoughts and strategies to improve English teaching in senior high schools from four aspects: the determination of teaching objectives,the optimization of curriculum,the improvement of teachers’ teaching and the improvement of students’ learning abilities,so as to make the latest round of English test reform of college entrance examination guide English teaching in senior high schools correctly,and the continuous improvement and optimization of English teaching in senior high schools adapt as soon as possible.The reform of College Entrance Examination aims at cultivating all-round socialist modernization builders and successors.