An Empirical Study Of The Washback Effect Of PETS’ Oral Test On Higher Vocational College’s Oral English Teaching

Washback refers to the effect of testing on teaching and learning. Both theoretical andempirical studies of washback in foreign countries are much earlier and richer than domesticstudies. In recent years, in China, the empirical study of washback is also increasing. However,there are few washback studies on Public English Test System (PETS), especially thewashback studies about PETS’ oral test on higher vocational college’s oral English teaching.This thesis is based on the researches on washback and at the same time combines withthe current situation of college oral English teaching to study whether the PETS’ oral test haswashback effect on higher vocational college’s oral English teaching. A survey study of fourcollege oral English teachers and randomly selected fifty sophomore English major studentsin Linfen College is conducted by using questionnaire, classroom observation and interviews.Findings from this study indicate that positive washback of the PETS’ oral test exists oncollege oral English teachers’ teaching contents. However, the PETS’ oral test has weakinfluence on college English major students’ oral English learning contents; Participatedcollege oral English teachers of this empirical study all think the PETS’ oral test stronglyinflence college oral English teachers’ teaching methods. Moreover, college English majorstudents think that the PETS’ oral test has positive and negative washback on their oralEnglish learning methods. Based on the results of study, this thesis presents some implicationsto the college oral English teachers and English major students. Finally, the limitations of thisstudy are presented in order to prompt the subsequent research.