Washback: Tests Influence Educational Process

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It has long believed that tests been directly influence educational process in various ways. Many researchers have attempted to investigate "Washback", or the influence of testing on teaching and learning. While it is widely acknowledged that the nature of washback is dependent on context (Burrows, 2004, shih, 2010,Shohamy,Donitsa_ Schmidt & Ferman , 19960).This article argues that the majority of washback studies suggest that positive and negative washback are defined by the presence or absencev of communicative language teaching(CLT).
In order to assess this purpose , the researchers examine the result of their investigations on experimental tests were carried out to the formal educational English tests.
The present paper tries to provide …show more content…

Wesche (1983 ) connects that the type of score report to the nature of of the decision to be made with the test washback. "If the purpose of the test is diagnostic or to evaluate progress in a language training program , detailed scoring grades might be in order". (p.47).Since the emergence of the effect of washback on learning and teaching process, many researchers have tried to study negative or positive aspects of backwash on different teaching methods. Spolsky (1990) it is not an exaggeration to say that the roll of textbooks , authors , publishers , teachers , teaching methodology and scoring and grading , is crucial in the washback process.Much more research is needed in this area. Many researchers need to employ additional ways of looking at the influence of tests on teachers ' methods.The publication of the seminal paper by Alderson and Wall (1993) with the title "Dose washback exist ?" The article considered all mager recent research reports and literature reviews in the area of washback in language testing . In their early reports on Seri Lanka impact study,They found that Hughes (1994) suggested a general definition _ the test ' s effect on any aspect of teaching and learning (ibid:1,underlined …show more content…

According to Hughes , "participants " are classroom teacher and students ,educational administrators, textbook and publishers ' all of whose perceptions and attitudes may be affected by a test .(ibid:2)Process refers to any actions taken by the participants which may contribute to the process of learning , such as materials , syllabus design , teaching methodology, test taking strategies .Product refers to what is learned and the quality of the learning '. Bachman and Palmer (1996) This study accomplished on students in japan. the results considered that washback can be best investigated within the scope of impact. The writers refer to issues of the negative effect of washback in a communicative teaching language. Washback has been described by researchers as a complex phenomenon consisting of numerous mediating factors. While most researchers agree that washback exists,they also acknowledge that there are varying degrees and different types of washback Watanabe(1996, p.331) His study was about the effect of washback of the Japanies University entrance on classroom instruction. He has suggested that the entrance exam caused only some kinds of negative washback to some aspects of some teachers' lessons. He believed that we need to collect more evidences to respecting this lemma . Shohamy et al

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