A Study Of Washback Of SHSEE (English,Shanghai) On Teaching Of Reading Comprehension At Junior Middle School

Language testing and language teaching are closely interrelated.Washback of language tests on teaching and learning can be harmful or beneficial.Senior High School Entrance Examination(SHSEE)is of great social influence.However,domestic researches on washback mainly focus on CET-4,CET-6,TEM-4,TEM-8and National College Entrance Examination,with little attention given to SHSEE,let alone the washback of the reading comprehension part in SHSEE.Therefore,this paper combines questionnaire,class observation and interview as three main research instruments,involves 70 English teachers teaching Grade 8 and Grade 9 in Putuo District in Shanghai as research participants,and aims at making an investigation into the washback of SHSEE(English,Shanghai)on teaching of reading comprehension at junior middle school,unveiling the negative washback and offering suggestions for facilitating teaching.The results of the paper indicate that the negative washback of the reading comprehension part in SHSEE(English,Shanghai)on teaching of reading comprehension at junior middle school is as follows.1)The question type such as “answer the questions”,mainly tests the basic reading skill of finding relevant information in the reading materials instead of reading skills of higher levels or skills reflecting students' knowledge or problem-solving ability.Due to such a question type,teachers are inclined to pay attention to the answers to the questions only and ignore the profound implication of a reading passage.The negligence of cultivating students' thinking ability gives rise to the negative washback.2)Teachers are often constrained to the reading materials that are similar to the reading passages in SHSEE(English,Shanghai)(i.e.,similar in topic,length and difficulty),with little passion or motivation to explore other interesting reading materials.3)Teachers tend to adopt bottom-up reading mode instead of top-down reading mode,especially when they teach average students or students below average.4)Both teachers and students have pressure from SHSEE and they relieve their pressure by doing more and more reading comprehension exercises or mock tests,which,on the contrary,increases students' burden of learning.Based on the results of the paper,the author also offers some suggestions for teaching reading comprehension at junior middle school:1)to introduce some reading comprehension strategies to students and give them relevant reading passages to apply these reading strategies;2)to cultivate students' thinking ability,enrich their general knowledge and help them deepen their understanding of the implication of the reading materials in the process of reading comprehension teaching rather than to focus only on the answers to the questions;3)to choose and integrate reading materials that are in line with students' age and within their cognitive level,to categorize them into different series and topics,and to establish a complete evaluation system for the formative assessment so that teachers can give students timely feedback,assistance and guidance in teaching of reading comprehension.