Testing And Its Strategies In EFL Teaching & Learning

It is a fact that many language tests have been administered and are still being used by the EFL teachers every academic year in China, but it is doubtful whether the purpose of using tests and testing strategies in the teaching and learning process and the impact that they have on language teaching and learning have fully been recognized. In the language teaching and learning context, it is not difficult to find that language testing and testing strategies have not been placed in an important position in the language teaching-learning process. The great impact that testing has on the overall quality of student learning and instructor's teaching has long been neglected. CFLTR Center (2002) listed the four most popular and heated projects, among which assessment and testing is one of them. The study of testing and its strategies brings great, realistic significance to both teaching and learning in EFL.Aiming at such situations, the current study intends to study the influence of testing and its strategies on EFL teaching and learning. Specifically, Chapter I serve as the general introduction. The author devotes great attention to review of related literature, pointing out their contributions and limitations as well. In Chapter II, the author places great emphasis on testing, and states the relationship between testing, its strategies and language teaching and learning . In Chapter III the author makes great efforts to deal with testing strategies in construction and evaluation as well as strategies in test-taking situations, giving a brief account of the historical trends in language testing and talking about the essential qualities of a good test and something related to the scientific, well-designed tests. Chapter IV discusses the uses of language testing and its strategies in College English Teaching and Learning. In order to examine whether testing and its strategies had positive effect on language teaching and learning, an empirical study was conducted in Chapter V, which consisted of a questionnaire survey among both teachers and students, interview with some teachers and students, and different treatments for the experimental class andthe control class. The experimental class was instructed through a succession of lectures on testing knowledge and test-taking strategy development in a term's time while the control class was not given any instruction of the above content during this period. After a careful analysis of the data from the study, the hypothesis put forward earlier in the thesis have been, to a certain degree,testified--testing and its strategies development do have positive backwash onlanguage teaching and learning. In Chapter VI, the author comes to her conclusion that both the teachers and students should be well armed with testing knowledge; consequently, both teaching and learning are to be improved.The method used in the research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies, in which empirical study is dominant and descriptive study serves as an important supplement Three approaches are adopted in the research: empirical study, questionnaire and interview.The author conducted an empirical study to 120 students from two different departments and the same university and sharing same English learning background and similar learning experience , among which 60 samples are from two groups respectively: experimental class and the control class. The results are further tested with two questionnaires and two interviews to both the students and the teachers.These efforts result in some findings: First, testing and testing strategies development have positive backwash on students' learning. Secondly, it is a priority to EFL teachers to receive professional training in language testing to make good use of test information as a reference to plan their instruction to achieve the ultimate goal of assisting teaching. Finally, it is beneficial for students to know something about testing and its strategies, with a view to use it as the most effective means of promoti...