Washback Of Cultural Contents In English Tests On English Teaching And Learning In A Junior High School

In the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017 Edition),cultural awareness is a key competence of this subject and it reflects the values of the key competences.Moreover,The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 Edition)also states that cultural awareness is one of the overall goals of the curriculum.It can be seen that culture is highly valued in English teaching.Meanwhile,culture is receiving more attention in tests.The impact that tests have on teaching and learning is termed washback(Hughes,1989).At present,most studies on washback brought by language testing focus on large-scale and high-stakes language tests.Little research focus on English tests in Senior High School Entrance Examination(SHSEE)and the cultural contents in them.Yet,studying the cultural contents in the English tests is helpful for English teachers to adjust their cultural teaching.Hence,it is necessary to study the cultural contents in the English tests in SHSEE.This paper aims to analyze the characteristics of the cultural contents in the English tests in SHSEE(Chengdu)from2017 to 2021 and to investigate the washback of the cultural contents on English teaching and learning,so as to provide suggestions for teaching English culture effectively in junior high schools.The researcher mainly tackles the three questions: 1)What are the characteristics of the cultural contents in the English tests in SHSEE(Chengdu)from 2017 to 2021(from the aspects of overall situation,regions and types of culture)? 2)What is the washback of the cultural contents on teachers’ teaching contents and teaching methods? 3)What is the washback of the cultural contents on students’ learning contents and learning methods?To answer the questions,the author did a study that lasted from August to December in2021.The text analysis method was first adopted to analyze the English tests in SHSEE(Chengdu)from 2017 to 2021.Then questionnaire and classroom observation were utilized to explore the washback of the cultural contents on the 5 English teachers and246 students from grade 3 in a private junior high school in Chengdu.The research results are as below: the total number of cultural discourses is small and the majority of them are found in listening and reading items;the regions of culture are neither widely nor evenly distributed;the coverage of the types of culture in each year is small except in 2020 and the distribution of the types of culture is not balanced;Chinese culture is constituting more and more proportion in the English tests in SHSEE(Chengdu).Moreover,the cultural contents have exerted great washback on teaching and learning.The washback on contents of teaching and learning is greater than that on methods of teaching and learning,and the beneficial washback is more than the harmful one.Additionally,some suggestions have been given to teachers,students and test developers.Teachers can appropriately increase the proportion of culture teaching,employ more culture-related activities in class and include culture in role play and group discussion,introduce different countries’ culture to students in diverse ways such as videos and extracurricular activities besides textbooks,and guide them to attend to the study and inheritance of excellent Chinese culture.For students,they should properly increase the time in culture study and learn more about Chinese and foreign cultures through various ways such as joining culture clubs and watching documentaries.The advice for test developers is as follows.First,the proportion of cultural discourses needs to be properly increased,and culture,especially Chinese culture,should also be included in writing items.Second,the culture of the countries either in inner or outer circles should be properly added to promote students’ multi-cultural awareness.Third,values,history and geography and lifestyle can be appropriately added to encourage students to learn various types of culture.Fourth,test developers ought to continue to keep their attention to Chinese culture,with the intention of enhancing students’ ability to disseminate excellent Chinese culture in English and strengthening their cultural confidence.