An Investigation Of English Listening And Speaking Teaching In Junior Middle Schools And Its Countermeasures Against The Background Of Senior High School Entrance Examination Reform In Dongguan City

To bridge the gap between the senior high school entrance examination and university entrance examination,Dongguan has launched an English listening and speaking test reform since 2016 to better adapt to the new requirements of modern English assessment and to test the students’ listening and speaking ability scientifically.One of the five basic principles of the reform is that the testing design should be in line with the "Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards"(2011 edition),which aims to improve the students’ language application ability.The reform has been implemented for three years,then what is the current teaching status? Will it meet the requirements of the reform? These questions are worth studying.Based on the above situation,this study selected 174 students and 18 teachers respectively as the research subjects from G middle school,M middle school,and H middle school in Dongguan,focusing on answering the following two questions:(1).What is the teaching status in junior high schools in English listening and speaking teaching in the context of the Dongguan middle high school entrance examination test reform?(2).What are the strategies for students,teachers,and schools to cope with the test and how the washback effects work under the context of the man-machine dialogue listening and speaking test reform?This study,combined with the washback effect theory and the new curriculum standards,investigated the current situation of the English listening and speaking teaching by using questionnaires and interviews,and tried to find out the washback effect the testing reform has on the teachers and students and to discuss the significance of the testing reform in Dongguan.The research has found that the listening and speaking test reform exerts positive washback effects on broth teachers and students.For teachers: the test can improve the teachers’ attitude towards listening and speaking teaching as well as their teaching methods.For students: the testing reform can improve the students’ learning attitude,learning interest,learning methods as well as learning motivation.Therefore,they are willing to employ various learning methods to improve their listening and speaking abilities.However,some problems are also found among students,teachers,and schools.Students lack inspiration for and confidence in the listening and speaking classes.Their learning methods and test grades need to be improved.Teachers are not quite familiar with the man-machine dialogue testing mechanism.And their teaching strategies need to be enriched and teaching efficiency needs to be improved by being integrated with educational technology.In schools,teaching facilities and resources are insufficient.Some schools do not attach much importance to the listening and speaking classes.Based on the above findings,the study put forward the following suggestions:Firstly,students should form a good learning attitude and find suitable learning methods.Secondly,teachers should take their classroom teaching as the top priority and fully implement the teaching objectives according to the new curriculum standards to improve the teaching quality;besides,teachers should also enhance the guidance on students’ in the man-machine dialogue testing skills.And finally,schools should be committed to the introduction of more experienced teachers,the enhancement of inter-school communications and the improvement of students’ listening and speaking abilities.