Research On Practicability And Backwash Effectsof English Monthly Tests In Guiyang No.9 Senior High School

The thesis is concerned with a research on the practicality and backwash of English monthly tests in order to offer the scientific analysis and assessment on the actual effect on the English monthly tests which are commonly adopted.Testing and teaching greatly support and enhance each other. Testing was born with the development of teaching. As the most commonly used judgment method of teaching and learning currently, tests are always introduced to obtain feedback on students’ learning progress. And tests are also needed when rational educational decisions are made so as to ensure effective teaching and improve teaching quality. Furthermore, the New Curriculum Standards for Senior High School English advocates the formative assessments for students, the quality of common tests organized by school, as one way of formative assessments, seems very important and the design of such papers should be very prudent. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to find testing problems resulting from misconceptions of tests in the context of high school teaching. Teachers may fail to construct appropriate tests for students and have risk of the misuse of the tests.As for the problem that the unstable quality of the current tests construction organized by schools own, the thesis took the monthly test in Guiyang No.9 Senior High School as a case to explore the rationality of English monthly tests and the problems whether the monthly tests can get positive feedback of the current teaching effect and whether the monthly tests can get positive backwash for later teaching. Under the guidance of English testing theories, the research adopted the means of questionnaires,interviews and analysis of testing papers to do some research which has been done through an investigation which involved data collection and data analysis quantitatively as well as qualitatively in detail from the following aspects: the validity of the test paper, the testing types, the facility value and the positive and negative backwash effect.It is found from the result of the research that the monthly test in Guiyang No.9 Senior High School was classified into achievement test which aims at examining the current teaching effect based on the teaching syllabus and textbooks. However, besides the rationality of the test types and testing frequency of the monthly test, the testing contents were far away from the teaching syllabus and textbooks and the facility value of test items was over the requirements of achievement test. Thus, the kind of test couldn’t show the current teaching effect effectively and it would get negative backwash for later teaching.However, English testing is a complex project. Where and when a test is set and what or who is tested at questions determines the actual testing procedure and may lead to different requirements with respect to the quality of a test. Only the tests of high quality can best present the feedback of students’ learning and give the positive backwash to the teaching and learning. Therefore, there are plenty of reasons for being cautious in constructing test papers and using tests, especially the English tests organized by schools own. So according to the monthly tests in Guiyang No.9 Senior High School, the thesis provided some implications. As for the practical implication for rational testing design, the monthly tests of Guiyang No.9 Senior High School should be reformed and the test construction should keep in accordance with the teaching syllabus and textbooks to help teachers and students to discover the deficiencies of teaching and correct them. Meanwhile, the test like this will let more students to pass which will strengthen students’ self-confidence and learning initiative; From the teachers’ professional development, teachers need strengthen their study of English testing theories and the New Standards; while the educational policy also need to be reformed and don’t judge teachers and students only by marks and should offer different kinds of judgments. At last, the paper also presents the limitations of the thesis and suggestions for future research in the end.