Washback in Language Testing Washback refers to the influence of language testing on teaching and learning. The washback effect goes well beyond the test itself to include factors, such as curriculum, teacher and learner behaviors inside and outside the classroom, their perceptions of the test, and how test scores are used. The teaching and learning activities should also aim to prepare learners for the test. If the content and techniques are different, it creates …………… backwash. If there is a ……………., it creates …………….. backwash harmful consistency beneficial

Washback can be distinguished in two dimensions: kind; positive and negative degree; strong and weak There are also some other variables that affect the kind and degree of washback ; prestige, accuracy, transparency, utility, monopoly, anxiety and practicality.

Negative aspects of washback Teaching Factors Teachers ………………. the curriculum narrow Teachers ………………. the new material and turn to …………………... stop teaching reviewing material Teachers replace class textbooks with …………….. identical to ……………………………. worksheets previous years’ tests There is ……………… teaching unnatural

Course Content Factors Students are taught for ……………… examination Students practise …………… items similar in …………………………………………... test-like format to those on the tests Students apply …………………strategies in class. test taking Students focus on ………………. and ……………. excluding language skills grammar vocabulary

Course Characteristic Factors Students are taught inappropriate …………………. and ………………….. strategies language learning language using skills It reduces the emphasis on ……… that require more complex …………… and ……………………. skills. thinking problem solving Students are not provided with the language … they will need for their further studies. There is a ………… atmosphere in the classroom. tense

Course Time Factors additional test-preparation Students enroll in ……………………………. classes or tutorials. There are ………… sessions added to regular class hours. review Some language activities are ……………. for tests. skipped ……………………………………. is lost. The valuable instructional time

Promoting Positive Washback Test Design Use ………….. samples widely and ………………... different unpredictably Design ………………………….. tests. criterion-referenced Design tests to measure …………. what the program intends to teach. Base the test on …. sound theoretical assumptions Base the achievement tests on … the objectives of the program. Use ……………….. testing. direct Foster learner ……………. and ………………… self assessment autonomy

Test Content Test the abilities whose .. development you want to encourage. Use ……………. testing items. open-ended Make the tests reflect ………………………... the full curriculum higher order cognitive Assess ……………………………. skills Use a variety of exam ………… , including … formats written, oral, aural and practical ones. out-of-school Do not stick to only …………… skills; ………….. tasks should be considered. academic Use ………………. tasks and texts. authentic

Logistics curriculum designers All the ……………, …………., …………….……….. and ………………. should understand the ………... of testing. test takers teachers administrators purpose Language ………………….. should be clear. learning goals Teachers should be given some assistance to …………… the tests and ………………. when needed. understand procedures Teachers or other test users should be given …………. feedback. Schools should be given feedback on the students’ ……………… and the …………..……….in public examinations. performance areas of difficulty Teachers and administrators should be involved in …………... different phases of test preparations A detailed ……………….. should be provided. score reporting

Interpretation / Analysis The exam results should be ………….., ………… and ……… for the test takers and users. believable credible fair Predictive validity ……………….…… of public exams should be determined. The examination authorities should be …………………. trained in test designs. Each examination board should have a …………… research capacity. The examination authorities should work with ……………... curriculum designers and teachers Regional professional networks ……………………………………… should be established to initiate ……………… programs and to share common ……………. and ……………….. exchange concerns interests

Communicative Language Testing “Communicative'' language testing emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a reaction against tests constructed of multiple choice items and the perceived over-emphasis of reliability. Lado in particular became a target for communicative testers. Key criterion in identifying a good test is that it looks like a good one, the input appears to be “authentic”, and the task or item type mirrors an act of communication in the real world. The communicative approach stands or falls by the degree of real life, or at least life-like communication that is achieved.

Communicative tests involve performance (speaking), and the performance is judged subjectively, qualitatively and impressionistically, by a sympathetic interlocutor/assessor. In testing productive skills, emphasis is placed on appropriateness rather than on ability to form grammatically correct sentences. In testing receptive skills, emphasis is placed on understanding the communicative intent of the speaker or writer rather than on picking out specific details. And, in fact, the two are often combined in communicative testing, so that the testee must both comprehend and respond in real time.

In real life, the different skills are not often used entirely in isolation. Students in a class may listen to a lecture, but they later need to use information from the lecture in a paper. In taking part in a group discussion, they need to use both listening and speaking skills. Even reading a book for pleasure may be followed by recommending it to a friend and telling the friend why you liked it. Communicative language tests (CLT) are distinguished by two main features: CLTs are performance tests and therefore require assessment to be carried out when the learner or candidate in engaged in an extended (receptive/productive) act of communication

CLTs pay attention to the social roles candidates would assume and hence considers the roles that candidates would assume in the real world on passing the test and offers a means of specifying the demands of such roles in detail We can specify four components of communicative competence: Grammatical competence- knowledge of systematic features of grammar, lexis and phonology Sociolinguistic competence - knowledge of rules of language use in terms of what is appropriate in different contexts

Strategic competence - ability to compensate for incomplete or imperfect linguistic resources in a second language by using (other) successful communication strategies Discourse competence - ability to deal with extended use of language in context (cohesion and coherence) Difficulties to develop communicative tests If teaching is carried out according to the communicative approach, then tests must be designed accordingly. However a lot of teachers believe that communicative tests are hard to prepare. In fact various challenging difficulties emerge when teachers develop communicative tests.

One crucial concern is the problem of developing useful assessment instruments which can be employed accurately and efficiently in a range of typical classroom situations. Another challenge is to develop a  framework  which is based on attending to the theoretical requirements of both communicative teaching goals and test design principles. There are also difficulties associated with the English as a Foreign Language  context. While communicative theory emphasizes the importance of using authentic materials and of practicing meaningful communication in realistic social situations , these goals are almost impossible to achieve in EFL  settings.

The EFL settings make impossible for learners to consolidate and practice what is learned in the classroom in real world situations which makes it very difficult to develop communicative tests. the extent to which it is possible to achieve the goal of meaningful communication remains entirely unclear, given the contextual requirement for simulating foreign interactions in EFL classrooms. communicative tests must also reflect contemporary theory concerning test design principles – validity, reliability, and practicality. I there is a lack of direct correlation between theory and practice, some specific discrepancies between test-design principles and efficiency requirements may occur.

Some teachers contend that it is inevitable that rating communicative tests may be subjective as it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong responses in real life situations. The following are tips for developing communicative tests: Communicative tests may be context specific. That is a test for a group of business learners may differ from a test designed for university students Testees must respond to real life situations. Some criteria for communicative tests may be related to the degree of politeness , formality, …

Performance in communicative tests reflects an underlying competence that is linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic… Any communicative testing should consider this multi-dimensional nature of language. Examples of communicative tests Examples of communicative tests may include: Information gap. This involves two (or more) learners. Each testee has part of the information. They have to negotiate in order to get the missing information. A clear context must be specified for the test.

Letter writing. Learners may be asked to write, for example, a business letter to ask for information or to respond to a complaint by a customer Note taking. Testees are involved in a listening activity in which they have to take notes and, for example, write a report Communicative tests are often very context-specific. A test for testees who are going to British universities as students would be very different from one for testees who are going to their company's branch office in the United States.

If at all possible, a communicative language test should be based on a description of the language that the testees need to use. Though communicative testing is not limited to English for Specific Purposes situations, the test should reflect the communicative situation in which the testees are likely to find themselves. In cases where the testees do not have a specific purpose, the language that they are tested on can be directed toward general social situations where they might be in a position to use English.

If students are going to be tested over communicative tasks in an achievement test situation, it is necessary that they be prepared for that kind of test, that is, that the course material cover the sorts of tasks they are being asked to perform. For example, you cannot expect testees to correctly perform such functions as requests and apologies appropriately and evaluate them on it if they have been studying from a structural syllabus. Similarly, if they have not been studying writing business letters, you cannot expect them to write a business letter for a test.

Tests intended to test communicative language are judged, then, on the extent to which they simulate real life communicative situations rather than on how reliable the results are. In fact, there is an almost inevitable loss of reliability as a result of the loss of control in a communicative testing situation. If, for example, a test is intended to test the ability to participate in a group discussion for students who are going to a British university, it is impossible to control what the other participants in the discussion will say, so not every testee will be observed in the same situation, which would be ideal for test reliability. However, according to the basic assumptions of communicative language testing, this is compensated for by the realism of the situation.