Study On The Washback Effect Of College English SET On Students' Oral Communicative Competence

The issue of "washback", or influence of language tests on teaching and learning, has been the subject of controversy during the past decade. Researchers in foreign countries have conducted a vast number of theoretical and empirical researches on test washback, which has enriched theories on language testing and provided useful information for the development of language teaching and learning; whereas in China, washback is still a relatively new field in the study of language testing and insufficient research has been done to explore its nature. So far, researchers have paid preliminary attentions to washback with observation of various kinds of large-scale tests such as CET 4/ 6, CET-SET, TEM4/8, and NMET etc.Meanwhile, with a view to further deepening College English teaching reform, meeting the needs of the country and society for qualified personnel in the new era, making college students more aware of the utmost importance of oral English and ultimately acquiring oral communicative ability, the CET examination board has established the CET Spoken English Test system under the approval of Chinese Education Ministry. However, it is a long and slow process to relax restrictions on CET-SET qualifications, since China is a large country with about 2300 universities and colleges and about 23 million students by the end of 2005. Besides, It is irrational and impossible to expect such a large-scale standardized foreign language test to take all the differences into consideration. So this thesis is intended to find a feasible compromise- the college English SET as a supplement to the existing CE testing system. Based on the theories of Bachman's CLA framework and of communicative language testing, with the insights into the principles and forms of CET-SET, college English SET has been established and administered among new students into Huanggang Normal College in Year 2005.Focusing on the participants in the oral English test operated in our college, the present study is based on Alderson & Wall's Washback Hypotheses (1993, 1996) and supported by Hughes' PPP Washback Model (Hughes, 1993, cited in Bailey, 1996). This paper first uses descriptive statistics to describe all the data concerned in college English SET and the post-test questionnaire survey, and then adopts inferential analysis to examine whether the test has fulfilled its mission to induce positive washback effect on college students' oral communicative competence, specifically listening and speaking abilities. To be specific, the study attempts to examine the influence of college-based oral English tests on various aspects of teaching and learning processes: Does washback exist in college English SET? Will college English SET influence what learners learn? Will college English SET influence students with regard to their motivation and strategies in spoken English learning, and consequently the outcome of listening and speaking learning?Results show that positive washback of college English SET can be summarized in three main respects: first, it highlights the significance of oral English learning and testing and ensures wide recognition and support from the administration, CE...