A Study Of The Washback Of Test Formats In Reading Comprehension Tests Of NMET On High School English Teaching And Learning

English reading comprehension tests have been the focus of the National MatriculationEnglish Test (The NMET). Multiple choice questions (MCQ) is a traditional test formatwhich is widely applied in present reading comprehension tests in NMET of mainland China.Although MCQ is reliable in scoring, this kind of test format has many disadvantages, such asguessing answers and unauthentic reading tasks, which have aroused more and more disputes.With the development and reform of NMET in China, some other formats are employedtentatively, and one of them is Short Answer Question (SAQ). Since2007, ShandongProvince has added SAQ (we call reading expression in NMET of Shandong province) as onetest format of reading comprehension tests. This way, the test formats of readingcomprehension tests are made up of multiple-choice questions and short answer questions.This study attempts to make an investigation on the washback of test formats in thereading comprehension tests of NMET in senior high schools on English teaching andlearning. Three questions are put forward:1) What are the teachers’ and students’understanding and attitudes towards test formats in the reading comprehension tests of NMET?2) In what aspects and to which extent do test formats in the reading comprehension tests ofNMET have positive washback on English teaching and learning in senior high school?3)How can the positive washback effect be achieved in English reading teaching and learning insenior high school?In order to answer these research questions mentioned above, the author did aninvestigation among388students from four high schools situated in four different cities ofShandong Province, and48teachers in Yantai city. Questionnaires, interviews and classroomobservations were taken as the instruments. The paper used Statistical Package for SocialSciences (SPSS) for descriptive data analysis.The research results illustrate that most teachers and students have positive attitudestowards test formats in the reading comprehension tests of NMET and think that in manyaspects of teaching and learning, there are more positive effects than negative effects. Butteachers and students agree that MCQ have more negative effects than positive effects in teaching methods and students’ learning attitudes.“Teaching for test” and “learning for test”are very common. Compared with MCQ, students and teachers think highly of SAQ, but atthe same time they admit that this test format to some extent adds the difficulty of readingcomprehension tests.Thus, some implications were found. Test designers should actively construct highquality reading comprehension test formats to strengthen the positive washback effect.Teachers should fully understand the test formats of reading comprehension tests, and takefull advantage of its positive washback effects to promote teaching and improve students’reading abilities. Students should also be under the guidance of teachers, with a positiveattitude to deal with test formats and ultimately improve their English proficiency to achievethe desired college entrance examination scores.