A Washback Study Of The NMET Cloze Test Point Hierarchy On Cultivating Students’ English Receptive Skills

In recent years,researchers and scholars have shown a greater interest in washback of large-scale and high-stakes tests on learners and learning,but only a few are engaging in washback of a specific test type,especially the NMET(the National Matriculation English Test)cloze.With the aim of investigating washback of the test point hierarchy of the NMET cloze on cultivating senior high students’ English receptive skills in their learning process,its intensity,as well as how it works,after an analysis of the test point distribution of the NMET cloze in the previously-used test papers National Unified Test Paper I(2016～2019),which has been used in Guangdong for four years since 2016,a questionnaire surveys is conducted in 4 senior high schools in Foshan involving 754 students and 37 teachers from 3 grades,followed by interviews with the students and the teachers,as well as classroom observations.The findings are as follows.1)The NMET cloze tests in the previously-used test papers of the National Unified Test Paper I(2016～2019)are mainly composed of items of high-level test points,especially the discourse level test point,while the phrase level test point only occupies a small portion and the word level test point is absent.2)In general,the test point hierarchy of the NMET cloze has exerted positive washback on the cultivation of students’ receptive skills.3)The washback intensity of test points of different levels on developing the same receptive skill increases with the test point level.4)The washback intensity of test points of the same level on cultivating different receptive skills has a positive relationship with the context required by a receptive skill.5)The test point distribution of the NMET cloze in the previously-used test papers plays a major role in choosing learning materials and teaching contents,and thus the intensity of the effects on the skill cultivation.6)The washback intensity differs among the subjects from different schools,grades,and at different score levels.Based on these findings,some suggestions for test designers,teachers,and students are offered correspondingly,with the hope to promote the cultivation of students’ receptive skills.