A Study Of Washback Effect Of CET-4Reading On College Students’Reading Strategy Use

Washback effect refers to the influence of testing on teaching and learning.Language testing, teaching and learning are interrelated and restricted mutually, so it isof significance to research on washback effect of language testing for improving thequality of language teaching and learning. As a large-scale test for college non-Englishmajors, College English Test Band4(CET-4) has significant impact on college Englishteaching and learning. Up to now, there have been a great amount of researchesconcentrating on washback effect, among which many researches are absorbed instudying washback effect on various test participants or the whole test, but fewresearches focus on washback effect of innovated CET-4reading in2013on collegestudents’ reading strategy use. Therefore, it is necessary to make research on it andgive further reasonable suggestions for English reading teaching and learning.Based on related theoretical framework concerning washback effect and readingstrategy, this study has been carried out among194Preschool Education majors inShandong Normal University with questionnaire and interview. For the purpose ofinvestigating whether students’ reading strategy use is affected by washback effect ofCET-4reading, this study compares the differences of reading strategy use betweengroups divided according to whether they have participated in innovated CET-4inDecember2013. Besides, in order to research what effects CET-4reading can make onstudents’ reading strategy use, this study analyzes the correlation between students’reading strategy use and their CET-4reading proficiency.On the basis of the analysis on questionnaire and interview, the author reaches theconclusions:1) CET-4reading promotes students’ reading strategy use to variousdegree, namely, it exerts the influence on cognitive strategy use with the mostsignificant effect, matecognitive strategy use at medium level, while social/affectivestrategy use with the least influence;2) metacognitive strategy consisting of arranging,planning, monitoring and cognitive strategy composed of inference, deduction, practicing, scanning have significant correlation with students’ readingproficiency, thus suggesting that CET-4reading exerts positive washback effect onstudents’ reading proficiency. Therefore, college teachers and students should attachimportance to increasing the awareness of adopting multi-reading strategies, practicingreading strategies systematically and integrating reading strategies into Englishteaching and learning effectively.