A Study On The Backwash Effect Of PRETCO On English Writing Methods In Higher Vocational Colleges

Ministry of Education launched the Practical English Test for Colleges in 1998(PRETCO)to strengthen the management of English teaching in colleges including in higher vocational colleges and provide an objective teaching feedback as well.Students' PRETCO results can be used as references for evaluating the teaching levels of higher vocational English,which correspondingly could advance teaching reforms.This paper intends to provide guidance for improving the teaching plans by exploring the backwash effects of PRETCO on the teaching of English writing in higher vocational colleges.It combined an experiment practising process-genre approach and empirical analysis in order to determine the role of process genre in the teaching of English writing.And it further provides a more scientific and effective teaching method for English Teaching in colleges and universities.The paper on two issues:(1)How do vocational teachers and students regard with the writing test in PRETCO currently?(2)Is it possible that process-genre approach can improve students' writing performance? With quantitative and qualitative hybrid research methods,the paper uses questionnaires,interviews and experiments to carry out the research.By selecting the teachers and students from Inner Mongolia Vocational College of Chemical Engineering to conduct a questionnaire survey,it proves that PRETCO has a counter-dialing effect on the teaching of English writing in higher vocational education.Selecting 50 students from two parallel classes in the second grade of Inner Mongolia Vocational College of Chemical Engineering as research objects and using the method of procedural law and traditional teaching methods respectively,the author demonstrates that the Process-genre teaching method can promote students' writing skills in English through the comparative experiments.This research has drawn the following conclusions: 1.PRETCO test does have backwash effect on teaching English writing in higher vocational colleges,but this backwash effect has two sides and its positive backwash effect is greater than negative backwash.2.Process-genre approach can improve the effect of writing teaching.Finally,the author believes that the process-genre approach can surely enhance students' confidence in writing and improve their writing habits.This attempt is a new challenge not only for teachers' instruction but also for students' learning.It will somehow offer a reference for later improvement of English writing teaching methods in higher vocational colleges.