Backwash Of NMET On Senior English Teaching And Learning From The Perspective Of New English Curriculum Standards

"Backwash"refers to the influence of language tests on language teaching and learning. This issue has been the subject of controversy during the past decades. Researchers in foreign countries have conducted a vast number of theoretical and empirical researches on test backwash, which has enriched theories on language testing and provided useful information for the development of language teaching and learning; whereas in China, backwash is still a relatively new field in the study of language testing. Insufficient research has been done to explore its nature, not to mention the backwash of the NMET. The NMET, as one of the most largest and effective foreign language tests in China, has a significant effect on senior English teaching and learning. Especially in the present circumstances of China where"teaching-to-test"is a common phenomenon in senior English teaching, which is even more serious than expected. Almost all the school work centers on NMET, making the test score the only purpose of senior English teaching instead of the language ability.In order to develop the effective environment for senior English teaching and learning in our country,the New Senior English Curriculum Standards was published in 2003,whose purpose is to have positive impact on senior English teaching and learning. What's more, the assessment standards and rules about students are given in it. With the instruction of the New Senior English Curriculum Standards, what kind of backwash on earth does the NMET have on senior English teaching and learning? The research into this aspect is relatively insufficient at present and even though some theory hypotheses exist, however, researches based on survey are rather inadequate.According to the above description, some characteristics and problems of NMET backwash on senior English teaching and learning are to be found in this survey by means of the analysis of NMET, the questionnaire for English teachers, students and inspectors who are concerned with English teaching and classroom observation . The target samples were 56 senior English teachers and two English inspectors of Jinan and Heze of Shandong province. What's more, 240 senior two and three students are involved in this research.The purpose of this thesis is to figure out how the NMET affect senior English teaching and learning by the above research methodology. Besides, the following problems are to be solved. One is how to exert its effective influence powerfully and decrease its negative influence, the other is how to combine the teaching syllabus and the test syllabus with the instruction of the New Senior English Curriculum Standards so that the quality of English teaching and learning can be improved. In addition, another aim of this research is to find the major problems existing in the present NMET. At the same time, some implications and suggestions that benefit the present senior English teaching and NMET are to be offered. I expect to find a way that appropriates both NMET and the development of language teaching.The research results show that the NMET backwash has both positive effect and negative effect. On one hand, NMET can guarantee the complement of the teaching task, stimulate teachers'activeness and drive students to study harder. On the other hand, because of the"teaching-to-test"phenomenon, senior English teachers pay more attention to"preparation-to-test". What's more, most of them lack the training opportunities and the understanding of New Senior English Curriculum Standards and teachers'professional development. As a result, senior English teachers not only can't improve their own teaching actively but also can't instruct their teaching with the New Senior English Curriculum Standards. The research results also show that the most important factor that influences the implementation of the New Senior English Curriculum Standards is the unreasonable administration and evaluation policies. According to the research results, the reform of the current NMET is put forward in order to provide positive impact and decrease negative impact of NMET. At the same time, advocating students'performance assessment and abolishing blocking factors to promote the implementation of new Senior English Curriculum Standards have been recommended. Further recommendations for teachers'professional development mechanism and innovating teachers'evaluation policy are raised in this thesis. Finally the limitations of this research are pointed out and it's necessary to do further empirical researches. The thesis is composed of six parts including introduction and conclusion. Chapter one reviews the theoretical and empirical researches on backwash in literature. Chapter two focuses on some concepts and theories of backwash, serving as a conceptual framework for the following chapters. Chapter three states research questions, research methods, research participants and data collection. Chapter four describes the results of research and discussion. Chapter five offers the implications and suggestions.