| This is a qualitative, multicase study designed to explore the nature of the relationship between a standardized test, called Bachillerato Test, administered at the end of high school in Costa Rica and what and how English as foreign language teachers teach. Each of the five cases is made up of an English teacher, his classes, evaluating instruments, teaching materials, classroom strategies, the National Syllabus and the Bachillerato Test itself as sources of data, and data from class observations. Teacher and student interviews were an essential way to obtain data. The narratives built from the interviews illustrate the participants' feelings and beliefs about the English Bachillerato Test in the context of high school EFL teaching and learning. The data from the interviews were compared with the official documentation, the literature on Communicative Language Teaching, and "washback", as the effect of a standardized test on teaching and learning is called in the literature. The data shows that the Test, which tests only reading comprehension but does not test listening, speaking, or writing, may be exerting a strong influence in the way teachers and students approach English teaching and learning. Pressure from the test, particularly the way its results are used out of school, may be responsible for the teachers and students to panic and abandon the mandated integrative syllabus for an effort that exclusively trains the students in reading strategies to take and pass the test. This study also unveils some other variables that may also intervene in the EFL classroom: the teachers' erroneous concept of CLT, which includes their impression that teaching communicatively is tiring. However, the participants reveal a desire to teach and be taught to develop competence of four linguistic skills in a balanced way. The study finishes with recommendations to integrate language learners' needs in the curriculum and in the National Standardized Test. It also points out areas that need further study. |
