An Empirical Study On The Backwash Effect Of National Matriculation English Test On English Teaching And Learning In A Senior High School

Backwash generally refers to the influence that testing has imposed on teaching and learning(Wall,1997).In the past two decades,the foreign studies on backwash effect have been developing rapidly.They not only perfect the language testing theory,but also greatly promote the development of teaching and learning.However,the empirical studies on the backwash effects of the National Matriculation English Test on senior English teaching and learning are relatively insufficient,the empirical studies on the backwash effect of the three grades in a senior high school are even rare.English is an important part of college entrance examination,which directly influences students' fate and leads to the situation that the NMET is the baton of teaching and the phenomenon of “teaching to test”.In order to further improve the status quo,the Ministry of Education issued New Senior High School English Curriculum Standards to guide teachers to pay attention to the communicative function of English language in 2013,then professor Wang Qiang of Beijing Normal University had interpreted it and proposed the concept of “Core Competences of English Discipline”,which mainly included “language ability,learning ability,thinking quality and cultural character”(Wang Qiang,2015),it aimed to cultivate students' major competences of English discipline and essential characters.Therefore,on the basis of Alderson & Wall's Backwash Hypotheses,Hughes' PPP Backwash Model and Dong Lianzhong's NMET Backwash Model,the present study mainly investigates the NMET backwash effects on teaching and learning in a senior high school from the angle of the NSECS so as to offer some implications to improve the quality of English teaching and learning in senior high schools.Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies have been adopted in the study.The study has investigated 27 English teachers and 290 students from three grades in a key senior high school of Jiangxi Province by means of classroom observation,interview and questionnaire survey.The results show that teachers and students are positive towards the NMET,which has produced both positive and negative backwasheffects on English language teaching and learning in the senior high school.The positive effects include: 1)The implementation of testing syllabus and NSECS has been promoted due to the NMET;2)It has improved students' knowledge and skills;3)It has strengthened students' learning motivations;4)It will help students achieve good scores in the NMET;5)It is beneficial to increase students' language input.The negative backwash effects are reflected in: 1)The phenomenon of “teaching to test” is common;2)Teaching method is relatively unitary;3)Teaching content and teaching materials are greatly limited;4)Doing a large number of exercises and NMET papers(SIII students in particular)has brought burden and pressure on teachers and students;5)It has dampened students' learning enthusiasm.Teachers support the teaching concepts of NSECS and the core competences of English discipline interpreted by professor Wang Qiang.They also express that teaching syllabus and testing syllabus should be kept consistent,but there exists both agreement and disagreement between what they believe in the ideology and what they actually do in their actual classroom teaching.Some suggestions are provided to promote the positive backwash effects and alleviate the negative ones so as to improve the effectiveness of English teaching and learning in senior high schools.