The Washback Effect Of Sentence Completion In National Matericulation English Test (Hubei) On Grammar Teaching

The significant reform and innovations of the national education have given impetus to the National Matriculation English Test (Hubei) and much attention has been paid to such parts in the NMET (Hubei) as reading, listening, and writing that focus on testing students'English proficiency. NMET (Hubei) adopted Sentence Completion in 2007 for the first time, intending to examine the language competence of senior high school students. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the washback exerted by Sentence Completion of the NMET (Hubei) on English teaching and learning in Hubei Shashi Middle School to decide whether the influence exists and what the nature of the influence is. Opinions and suggestions on Sentence Completion of the NMET (Hubei) have been collected, and the great influence that NMET (Hubei) has on the daily teaching has been tested. Based on these results, causes of negative washback have been found out and the approaches to developing positive washback have come up. As an empirical washback study on Sentence Completion of the NMET (Hubei), the present study has made some practical suggestions on grammar teaching and learning.Three research methods, namely questionnaire surveys, classroom observation and interviews, have been used to collect the information. Altogether 145 students and 23 teachers in my school have participated in the investigation.In this thesis, the term "washback" is narrowly defined as the effect of Sentence Completion in the NMET (Hubei) on teachers'teaching and students'learning, especially on grammar teaching and learning, including their perceptions, processes and products. Findings from the investigation suggest that Sentence Completion in the NMET (Hubei) does exert washback effects, directly or indirectly, on both teachers'and students' perceptions. Their teaching or learning processes and the effects turn out to be complicated for both negative and positive washback exist at the same time and they do work with each other in English teaching and learning. Such problems as "teaching to test" and "learning to test" have been pointed out and suggestions have been made to help to solve those problems:(1) the teaching principles which are stipulated in the English Curriculum Standards shall be fully implemented by the teachers in grammar teaching and grammar teaching shall not be treated as an isolated part in English teaching; (2) more types of activities and exercises shall be introduced into grammar teaching; (3) students'autonomous learning abilities shall be developed in their grammar learning.