A Study Of The Washback Effects Of College English Classroom Listening Test On Students' Learning

Washback refers to the effect of testing on teaching and learning,it can be positive and negative.It is an important research topic in test and language teaching.Lots of researches and discussions have been done by many scholars for many years both at home and abroad,it provided some suggestions for language teaching and learning.This thesis takes Hughes'(1989)“participants-process-products” basic washback model as the theoretical framework and chooses the listening material of CET 4 as the testing contents.The author selected the 153 non-English majors of Changchun University of Science and Technology as the participants.Through comparative analysis of pre-test and post-test,the author studied the the washback effect of listening test on students' listening learning.The author also chose the questionnaires and interviews as the supplementary instruments to collect data.Through the study,the author found that listening test has both positive and negative effects on students' listening learning,and the positive washback is greater than the negative one.The positive washback was mainly presented in the students' listening scores,the students' performance in passages and long conversations.And the washback on dictation was not obvious,but there was a certain negative waskback in news.It also showed a positive washback in the acquisition of detailed information and word spelling of the students.Through questionnaires and interviews,the author found that the washback of listening tests on students' listening learning was mainly reflected in learning materials,learning objectives,learning contents,learning attitude,learning anxiety,learning style,cognition and other aspects.On the one hand,listening tests help students become aware of the importance of listening,so that they pay more attention to English listening learning.On the other hand,listening tests help the teachers have a better understanding of the students' real listening ability and the strengths and weaknesses of the them.It provided some useful suggestions for English teachers to promote students' listening learning.