A Study On The Backwash Effects Of The Testing Tool Of Formative Assessment On Seniorhigh School English Teaching And Learning

The Senior English Curriculum Standard indicates that assessment is animportant constituent part of English curriculum, and that a scientific assessmentsystem is an important guarantee to achieving curricular goals. Various tools arewidely used in formative assessment. As a common assessment tool with its ownadvantages, the most common testing form contributing to formative assessment insenior high schools is regular testing, It can make teachers get the feedbackinformation of English teaching so that they can meditate and adjust their teaching,whichwill furthermore promote theireducational and teaching levels. The assessmentalso can spur the students to experience perpetual progress and success in the courseof English study. Only through this can they be acquainted with themselves, build upconfidence, adjust theirlearning strategy and develop theirintegrated language abilityin the round.The aim of this thesis is to investigate the backwash effect of the testing tool offormative assessment-regular testing, in senor high schools. The thesis will firstanalyze its positive andnegative backwash effects given to both teachers and students,and then analyze the reasons why some negative backwash effects fail to fulfill theintended purpose in the formative assessment and finally try to find solution to avoidsuch negative backwash effects, thus making innovations in the implementation offormative assessment.In order to generalize the research, the students and teachers are chosen fromSeniorII from three different levels of seniorhigh schools in Changchun-a provincialkey school, an urban key school and an ordinary school. Three instruments (unittesting paper, interview, and questionnaire survey) are employed in the presentstudy.Besides the positive backwash effects of the unit testing, the paperfinds that theproportionof key knowledge in eachunit testing paperwill contribute to its backwasheffect. A lower proportion may lead to the failure of providing enough feedbackinformation to both teachers and students. At last, the paper gives some advice toteachers and teachers should have a good understanding of the fundamentalknowledge of testing; the proportion of key knowledge should reach an enough leveland the forms of regulartesting can be very flexible so as to serve the role of regulartesting in formative assessment.