An Investigation Into Immediate And Longitudinal CET Washback From Teachers' Perspective

Washback refers to the influence of testing on teaching and learning. The College English Test (CET) is an educational, standardized, criterion-related norm-referenced test. It is sponsored by the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education and has been in operation for over two decades, aiming to accurately measure college students'ability to use English in a well-rounded way, and to promote the implementation of College English Curriculum Requirements (Requirements). Since 2005, CET has undergone tremendous innovations in terms of scoring formula, score reporting, test components and test formats. The test innovation has been implemented nationwide since 2007. Teachers are expected to implement the Requirements and they play an instructive role in students'learning, therefore, investigating CET washback from teachers'perspective is of great importance. The study is composed of three interrelated stages. Stage One is Gu Xiangdong's baseline study in 2003. Stage Two is Li Jie's preliminary investigation in July 2007. Stage Three is the researcher's present study in January 2008. Based on the three investigations above, the present study attempts to investigate the immediate and longitudinal CET washback from teachers'perspective, aiming to address: 1) What is the immediate washback of the innovated CET? 2) Does CET washback change over time?Questionnaire surveys were employed as the main research instrument in the present study, complemented by classroom observations and interviews. In January 2008, 477 CE teachers from 45 colleges and universities at three CET Marking Centers were surveyed. From March to April in 2008, 40 teachers'English classes at three sampled universities were observed and 20 of them were interviewed. The researcher explores CET washback in terms of teachers'familiarity with CET, teachers'attitudes towards CET, teachers'classroom behaviours and factors affecting CE teaching.The research findings show that no matter whether it is from an immediate or a longitudinal perspective, CET exerts more positive washback than negative one on CE teaching.Immediately speaking, most of the teachers are familiar with the CET innovation and are in favor of most of the innovation measures. CET has promoted the implementation of the Requirements in CE classroom teaching and learning: teachers pay attention to developing students'well-rounded abilities of using five basic linguistic skills, with listening receiving relatively more attention; teachers'coverage of textbook units for intensive reading and, listening and speaking turns out to be generally satisfactory. However, teachers'relatively little attention to translation and the decreasing coverage of textbook units from Band 1 to Band 4 indicate possible negative CET washback.Longitudinally speaking, no matter whether it is before or after the CET innovation, teachers are generally in favor of the test. After the innovation, teachers'attitudes towards the test change into a more positive way with time passing by; listening and speaking receive increasing attention from teachers and teachers'coverage of textbook units for listening and speaking changes in an increasing direction with the passage of time. In addition, the effects of learning atmosphere, class size and students'English proficiency are found to outweigh that of CET on CE classroom teaching.In addition to the major findings above, the present study provides suggestions for the CET innovation as well as feedback for the improvement of CE teaching.