The Backwash Study Of CET-Spoken English Test

With the economic globalization, more and more qualified English speakers are desired in all walks of life and the skill of fluent spoken English has been vital in social and international exchanges. However, in China, speaking, as one of the four important communication skills, has long been neglected in the language teaching; oral English teaching and testing have always been the weak points in college English education. The traditional oral English education in our country failed to meet the demands of social development, thus many graduates couldn't communicate in English smoothly. In recent years, much concern has been given at the graduates'low level of communication skills in English, and it has been widely acknowledged that the aim of most English learners in China is to use English for purpose of communication. Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to do lots of research to find better ways to improve students' oral English.Actually testing and teaching are two closely interrelated factors for improving students'oral ability. They are so closely interrelated that it is virtually impossible to work in either field without being concerned with the other. Testing and teaching depend on each other and push forward each other. Tests may be constructed primarily as devices to reinforce learning and to motivate the students. In the former case, the test is geared to the teaching, whereas in the latter case, the teaching is often geared largely to the test. As a college English teacher, the author of the thesis tentatively conducted an experimental study to testify the backwash effect of the CET-Spoken English Test in college spoken English teaching and improve college English teaching.The author conducted an experimental study by using contrastive analysis. The research goals of the study are: (1) To expect to prove that CET-SET can increase the art majors'inner motivation to practice spoken English and change the art majors'attitudes towards learning English. (2) To expect to prove that CET-SET can improve the art majors'English academic achievement. The subjects of the study are 78 students of art designing enrolled in 2008 at Shandong University of Technology. The author of the thesis taught them both the listening and speaking course and the reading and writing course. Before the experiment, the two classes both took a pretest. The test paper was the English test paper for college entrance examination administrated in spring, 2007, in Shanghai. After collecting the data of the pretest, the author analyzed the data by using SPSS13.0. An independent samples t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the two classes in terms of English proficiency. Then the author randomly chose one class as the experimental class and the other became the control class.The author conducted an experimental study in the experimental class from September, 2009. A posttest was administrated to the students both in the experimental class and the control class at the end of the experiment. The test paper for the posttest was a PETS-3 test paper (March, 2006) and the author made some necessary adjustments. An independent samples t-test revealed a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in general grade. And in the sections of speaking, listening, reading and writing, there are also significant differences while there was no significant difference between the two classes in the section of vocabulary and structure. All the CET-SET takers in the experimental class answered a questionnaire after the experiment. The author also interviewed some teachers and students after the experiment. By analyzing the data of the questionnaire and the interviews, the author found that the students in the experimental class had some positive changes in affective factors and other aspects. They became more interested and more motivated in learning English and their attitudes toward learning English also changed remarkably.On the whole, the study proved that CET-SET can improve college spoken English teaching. If a college English teacher understands it well and tries to implement it in the teaching process, it will greatly facilitate oral English teaching and enhance students'oral ability.