A Study Of Two Types Of Writing Tasks In EFL Testing: Writing-Only Tasks And Continuation Tasks

Recent developments in writing assessment have resulted in rapid development of new test methods in L2 exams.These new assessment innovations are integrated writing that involves different language modalities such as reading and listening.The continuation task is one of the integrated writing that combines reading and writing together and has been adopted in the new National Matriculation English Test(NMET)in Zhejiang Province since 2016.The introduction of the continuation task is a prominent innovation of Zhejiang NMET.As a high-stakes test,the NMET has significant impacts on pedagogical practices in Zhejiang,and the reform of the test will have obvious washback effects on teaching and learning.However,there are few existing studies exploring the influences of adopting the continuation task in the new NMET.To fill the gap,the present study aims to examine the effects of task types(the writing-only task and the continuation task)on Chinese high school EFL learners'writing products in terms of fluency,complexity and accuracy;to probe into teachers'and students' attitudes towards the continuation task in comparison to the traditional writing-only task;to investigate whether alignment occurs in the continuation task;and to explore the washback effects of the continuation task.The current study was conducted in Hangzhou No.2 High School and a total of 76 EFL high school students in Grade Two participated in the study.Each student was required to complete the traditional writing-only task and the continuation task respectively.A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted in the study.The results showed that(1)students demonstrated higher overall writing quality in the continuation task than in the writing-only task;no significant difference existed between students' compositions of the two writing tasks in terms of fluency;students'compositions of the writing-only task were more complex and less accurate than those of the continuation task;(2)students and teachers held positive attitudes towards the continuation task;(3)the alignment effect could be found in students' written products of the continuation task and be reflected in the questionnaire;(4)the results of the study yielded positive washback effects of the continuation task on learning and teaching,indicating that this writing task was beneficial to develop students' critical thinking and imaginative ability.Pedagogical implications of these findings were also discussed in the study.