The Wash-back Effect Of The NMET Reading Test On English Reading Teaching And Learning In Senior High School

Wash-back effect refers to the positive or negative influence on teachers’ teaching and students’ learning during the teaching process caused by the language tests.Since 1990s,the wash-back effect has claimed increasing attention from the English testing department and education industry.More and more learners at home and abroad have been doing research on it mainly from its theoretical and empirical aspects,contributing to the development and improvement of the reform of English testing and teaching.There is no doubt that the National Matriculation English Test(NMET)has vital impact on senior high schools’ English teaching and learning.However,researches into the wash-back effect of language testing in China are mainly centered on the CET4/6 and TEM4/8,and the wash-back effect of the NMET is insufficient,let alone NMET reading comprehension’s wash-back effect.Reading comprehension has always been playing a significant role in the NMET with its abundant content of considerable length and scores,which helps to lay the solid foundation of comprehension in the teaching and learning procedures.Because of this kind of situation,the study aims to investigate these questions:first,what effect does NMET reading test have on the teachers’ reading teaching in senior secondary schools?Second,what effect does NMET reading test have on the students’reading learning in senior secondary schools?Third,what measures can be taken to promote the positive effect and avoid the negative effect?During the study process,based on the theories from Alderson&Wall’s wash-back Hypotheses,Hughes’ PPP wash-back model,Prodromou’s Overt-Covert wash-back and the characteristics of the NMET reading test,this thesis analyses NMET reading comprehension’s wash-back effect on English reading teaching and learning in senior high school by means of questionnaire,classroom observation and interview,with the 20 English teachers and 527 students from the Grade One of Xiang Yang No.24 Middle School as an example.In addition,the research results show that NMET reading test has both positive and negative wash-back effects on reading teaching and learning goals,content,methods and attitude,which also differs from person to person.The positive effect lies in facilitating teachers’teaching and students’ learning passion.The author also finds out that the teachers focus more on the passage than the words and grammar in their daily reading teaching.What’s more,they constantly develop the students’ abilities to gain and deal with information in order to analyze and solve problems in English to help students broaden their horizons,improve their thinking quality and make cultural communication.However,the negative effect lies in the only-one-kind multiple choice and lack of subjective testing item,which result in the over-whelming phenomenon of "reading teaching and learning to test" way of the multiple choices and limit the improvement of students’ integrated ability to use English in a way.As the research results mentioned above,the author puts forward some advice on NMET reading test design and reading teaching and learning,desiring to promote students’ reading abilities and gain better teaching and learning results.