An Investigation Of Nmet Effect On Senior English Language Teaching And Learning

Test exerts great effect on teaching and learning. The effect of language test is called backwash in the field of applied linguistics which is universally known that it has great influence on language teaching and learning. This kind of influence includes positive influence and negative influence. The positive one can be beneficial to language teaching and learning while the negative one works as a barrier.In the present situation of China, National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) is very important to senior high school students. As one of the items of NCEE, National Matriculation English Test (NMET) exerts great backwash on English language teaching and learning in senior high school. However researches into the impact of language tests are mainly done on CET4/6, TEM4/8, TOEFL and IELTS and the backwash effect of NMET is insufficiently studied both theoretically and empirically. In addition, these insufficient studies on the backwash effect of NMET are only done on a certain item in some areas such as a study of NMET the backwash effect on grammar/ listening/ reading,teaching and learning. Hunan Province has a large population of test-takers, but it is difficult to find studies on the backwash effect of NMET in schools there. This research focuses on the backwash effect of NMET on English language teaching and learning in Longshan Senior High School, Hunan Province and some relevant suggestions are made.In this study, 9 English teachers and 423 students from different grades and backgrounds are invited to complete questionnaires for data collection. The results reveal that NMET has both positive and negative backwash effects on English teaching and learning in Longshan Senior high school. On the one hand, English teaching and learning has drawn attention from both English teachers and students. It's not strange that many students are good at vocabulary, writing and learning. On the other hand, pursuing for high NMET scores helps students do well with the exam papers while they are not good at language use. Meanwhile, NMET also impose great pressure on teachers and students both physically and mentally. Concerning to this situation, some suggestions for English language teaching and learning have been put forward in this paper.This dissertation consists of several parts: Introduction deal with research backgrounds,research significance as well as research purpose. The second part is a.review of related studies at home and abroad on the backwash effect. The third part is about research design. Detailed information about all the participants and detailed introduction of the research method are discussed in this part. The fourth part is the main body of the dissertation. It covers the results and analysis collected via questionnaires. The last part is the conclusion of the research. The findings of the research are as follows: 1) among students of different grades, NMET imposes greatest influence on Grade Three students. 2) Among students from different backgrounds,NMET exerts more influence on the countryside students than the city students. 3)Among students of different grades the backwash effect of NMET varies from different grades. For the freshmen, NMET imposes more influence on the students of higher levels, while for Grade Three and Grade Two students; NMET exerts greater effect on the students of lower level.