A Review of the Washback Effect of College English Test (CET) in China
Abstract
This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical washback studies of home and aboard which have been carried out in the field of English language education, trying to bring some experience to the washback studies of the College English Test (CET) in China. It aims to explore four aspects of this field: 1.The definition of washback. 2. The theoretical foundation of washback and the relationship between testing and teaching & learning. 3. The problems and difficulties existing in the studies of CET washback. 4. The future directions of the CET washback studies and the possible ways to solve the problems. The review shows that the washback is a complex but not well defined phenomenon which makes the researchers difficult to investigate its working mechanism and hard to introduce its findings into the actual improvement of the language teaching & learning. Furthermore, CET as the biggest scale of EFL (English as foreign language) test in the world has much more incontrollable complexity, which makes it more difficult for the researchers to study how its washback works. Thus, the cooperation among researchers to study the CET washback effects is highly recommended in this review. Besides, making clear definition, theoretical development and transference of research focus from test to students are also proposed as the future direction of CET washback studies. Theoretical development should be in the first place of consideration before an investigation of CET washback.
Key words: washback effect, language testing, CET-4&CET-6
摘        要
本文对国内外关于语言测试的反拨效应进行了综述, 旨在对大学英语四、六级考试的反拨效应研究提供可借鉴的经验和方法。本文探讨了关于这一领域的以下几个方面：1.反拨效应的定义；2. 反拨效应的理论基础以及语言测试与语言教学之间关系的研究成果；3. 我国大学英语四、六级考试反拨效应研究的问题和挑战；4. 我国大学英语四、六级反拨效应的研究趋势以及大学英语四、六级考试反拨效应研究所遇问题的解决途径。本综述指出，反拨效应是一个非常复杂但又没有得到准确定义的现象，这使得研究人员难以摸清它的作用机理以及难以将研究所得的成果应用到实际英语教学的提高当中。而且，大学英语四、六级考试作为世界上最大规模的英语外语考试，存在着更多不可控制的复杂因素，使得对其反拨效应的研究变得更加困难。因此，本文强烈建议我国研究人员采取合作方式开展研究，除此以外，还应该对反拨效应进行清晰定义、并注意将重心放在研究理论的发展以及学生学习的研究上面，研究理论的提高应当成为反驳效应研究之前的首位考虑因素。
关键词：反拨效应、语言测试、全国大学英语四、六级考试