An Empirical Study On The Washback Of The CET-4 New Listening Test Items On College English Listening Teaching And Learning

Washback(Alderson & Hall 1993,Hughes 2003,Shih 2007)refers to language teaching and learning affected by language test,which can be positive and negative.College English Test(CET-4)is the National English Test,aiming to comprehensively measure college students' application ability and further promote the improvement of teaching quality.Since CET-4 implemented in 1987,it has undergone several reforms which have a certain positive influence on English teaching and learning.In order to further deepen the requirements of higher education development and cultivate students' practical ability,National College Testing Committee made reforms and adjustments to the CET-4 examination in June 2016,especially in the listening section,which increased the proportion of subjective test and reduced the proportion of the objective test.New listening test items focus on the listening and speaking ability much more,which obviously improves the requirements of the listening test,but when it comes to the washback of the listening teaching and learning,there are still many things needing to be studied.This is also the significance of this research.Many scholars have carried out many studies of CET washback,especially the research on the post-reformed CET-4 listening section(Yan Shanshan 2016,Zhong Xing 2017),of which a few empirical studies have been conducted.Based on the Alderson & Hall's,Hughes' s and Shih's washback hypotheses,related studies at home and abroad and my practical teaching in college English listening,this thesis carries out an empirical study in washback of new listening test items in CET-4 on college listening teaching and learning for six months.The research questions: 1)Is the washback of new listening test items in CET-4positive or negative? 2)What kind of washback do new listening test items in CET-4 produce in college English listening teaching? 3)What kind of washback do new listening test items in CET-4 produce in college English listening learning?In this study,20 university teachers and 300 non-English majors from a university in Shaanxi Province have been randomly selected as a research subject by using questionnaires,interviews,etc.At the same time,the experimental class and control class are randomly selected to carry out the experimental teaching for six months.According to the analysis of data collection,several findings are found as follows: 1)Positive washback of the new listening test is greater than its negative washback,especially,which can promote teachers to change their listening teaching methods positively and enhance students' learning motivation and learning interest.2)New listening test items in CET-4 make teachers know the currentteaching objectives clearly and adjust relevant teaching contents,which promotes teachers to change traditional teaching approaches timely and emphasize the teaching in listening and speaking as well as the cultivation of students' application ability in English.3)New listening test items make students be aware of the learning objective explicitly.Although there is a certain negative effect on learning contents and learning methods,most students' attitudes are correct and learning contents focus on the practical application of English.It is concluded that the new listening test items have a certain positive washback on college English listening teaching and also have a certain positive effect on students' communicative ability.Meanwhile,some suggestions for future college English listening teaching and learning are put forward in order to improve the teaching quality,learning efficiency and further reformation of the listening test in CET-4.Finally,the limitations of this study and the implications for further research are given.