An Empirical Study On Wash Back Of The New HSK Level 5 For Korean Students In China

The wash back of language testing refers to the effects on teachers’ teaching and students’ learning. It includes two aspects: positive wash back and negative washback. In this article, the author conducted an empirical study on South Korean students who are studying in China. The author discusses the different influences of the HSK on candidates from specific countries, whilst concomitantly exploring new HSK’s wash back to South Korean students who are studying in China, in order to better promote their study.This empirical study uses the results of the wash back of English testing both at home and abroad for reference, and combines questionnaires and individual interviews. This research can be divided into three parts: the first part concerns the understanding of South Korean students to the new HSK 5; the second part deals with the test preparation characteristics of South Korean students in China; and the third part is the influence factors on South Korean students’ preparation.This study finds that the new HSK 5 has both positive and negative effects on South Korean students in China. On the one hand, it has a certain guiding role to the student, helping them determine to the learning methods and learning content. However, on the other hand, students pay more attention to examining skills during the learning process- leading to “rote memorization”.Finally, this paper proposes some suggestions to the related groups on Chinese teaching and learning according to the research results.