A Study On Washback Effect Of Text-based Grammar Blank-Filling In Nmet On Senior High School English Teaching And Learning

The washback effect refers to the impact of language testing on language teaching and learning.So far,although there have been some studies on the washback of standard tests,the research of the washback effect on a specific type of college entrance examination(CEE)in a certain province is still rare.Since the Liaoning Test Paper was replaced by the National Test Paper in 2015,one of the important changes for Liaoning candidates is that new question type “Textbased Grammar Blank-filling Questions”(TGBQ)has replaced “Multiple Choice”(MC).Based on Charles Alderson & Dianne Wall’s Washback Hypothesis and Arthur Hughes’ Trichotomy Washback Model,this study intends to answer three research questions from the perspective of the washback effect of the new question type on teachers and students:1.What are the attitudes and perceptions of teachers and students on TGBQ?2.What kind of washback effects does the TGBQ have on teaching and learning?3.How can teachers and students enhance the positive washback effect of the TGBQ and reduce its negative washback effect in teaching and learning?The author conducted qualitative and quantitative research in a high school in Dalian from March to July,2019,and took 536 students and 10 English teachers as subjects.Research instruments such as questionnaires,interviews,and classroom observation were adopted in order to collect data that were then analyzed through SPSS 25.0.The research results show that: teachers and students generally welcome TGBQ in that it has a strong context and objective investigation of knowledge points;the TGBQ has a two-way effect on teaching and learning;TGBQ promotes the teaching and learning process for teachers and students,but at the same time,it still has negative exam-oriented effects on the selection of teaching materials,the arrangement of teaching content,and the use of teaching methods.This research has certain reference value for English teaching and learning in senior high school: 1)in practical teaching,textbooks cannot be replaced by exercises;2)it is recommended that teachers stimulate students’ cultural awareness of texts in teaching;3)it is recommended that students should use a variety of exercises,so as to make promotion among question types;4)students should extensively read articles on a variety of topics and discourse types.However,the research subjects of this study are mainly the Grade 2,and there is no comparison of large amounts of data in other grades;the recovery rate of the questionnaire is not high enough.Therefore,it is hoped that related research in the future will overcome these limitations and conduct further research.