A Study Of Washback Effect Of Continuation Task Test On Senior High School English Writing Teaching And Learning

Washback or backwash,also known as measurement-driven instruction,refers to the influence of testing on teaching and learning.As a high-stake and large-scale test,National Matriculation Entrance Test(NMET)has an impact on teaching and learning in many different ways.Writing is an important language skill and accounts for a large proportion of the score in the NMET.The English Test of Jiangsu Province NMET has adopted the new version since 2021,in which there have been great changes in writing test.Does the continuation task generate washback effects with the development of reform? Based on Alderson and Wall’s Washback Hypotheses,this study takes 41 English teachers and 356 students in four senior high schools in Jiangsu province as the research participants to explore the washback effect of the NMET continuation task on senior high school English teaching and learning by means of questionnaires,interviews and classroom observation.This study aims to investigate the two following questions:(1)what are the washback effects of Continuation Task on senior high school writing teaching?(2)what are the washback effects of Continuation Task on senior high school writing learning?The results show that:(1)The continuation task in the NMET has a great washback on English writing teaching in senior high schools,with a great positive washback on teaching attitudes,purpose,content,methods,activities,outcomes,composition evaluation criterion,and a great negative washback on teaching materials and length.In a word,the positive washback is greater than the negative washback;(2)The continuation task in the NMET has a great washback on senior high school English writing learning,with a great positive washback on learning attitudes,purpose,content and methods,and a great negative washback on learning materials,outcomes and length.Generally speaking,the positive washback is greater than the negative washback.Based on the findings of the study,this thesis further explores the factors that cause the negative washback effects,and puts forward corresponding suggestions for the current teaching of English writing and learning in senior high schools.For teachers: Teachers should change their teaching attitude,clarify the teaching purpose,and not teach for the exam;Teachers should make reasonable arrangements and work out definite continuation plans according to the actual situation of teaching and students’ level;Teachers should strengthen reading-writing integrated training of students;Teachers should expand teaching materials to extracurricular materials with authentic language and moderate difficulty,and should not be limited to test papers;Teachers should creatively assign the continuation homework and not blindly ask students to recite sample essay;Teachers should help students learn the evaluation criterion and instruct students to assess mutually.For students: Students should have correct learning goals and not learn for the exam;Students should lean the continuation task actively and read more English literature;Students should communicate more with their teachers and revise their compositions repeatedly.At the same time,some constructive suggestions for schools and the future proposition of the continuation task are also provided.The results are beneficial to inspire senior high school English writing teaching and learning,which is conducive to promoting the development of senior high school English writing teaching,increasing the positive washback of the continuation task,and cultivating students’ comprehensive language ability.