Washback in Language Assessment

This paper reviews the progress made in washback studies over the quarter century since Hughes’ (1989) placed it at the centre of his textbook Testing for Language Teachers. Research into washback and the development of models of washback are described and an agenda is suggested for test developers wishing to build washback into their programmes. It is recommended that future projects should pay greater attention to test design features and to the outcomes of learning as well as continuing to explore learner motivation and cultural factors that might encourage participants to react to tests in certain ways, but not in others. Washback research itself is seen to be a potentially valuable tool in persuading participants to adopt new practices.

[1]  Samuel Messick.  Validity and washback in language testing , 1996 .

[2]  J. Charles Alderson,et al.  Does Washback Exist , 1993 .

[3]  Lyle F. Bachman,et al.  Language Assessment in Practice , 2010 .

[4]  Lee J. Cronbach,et al.  Course Improvement through Evaluation , 1963, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[5]  Liying Cheng,et al.  Washback in Language Testing : Research Contexts and Methods , 2004 .

[6]  Catherine A Burrows.  Washback in Classroom-Based Assessment: A Study of the Washback Effect in the Australian Adult Migrant English Program , 2004 .

[7]  T. Crooks.  The Impact of Classroom Evaluation Practices on Students , 1988 .

[8]  Yoshinori Watanabe,et al.  Does grammar translation come from the entrance examination? Preliminary findings from classroom-based research , 1996 .

[9]  C. Snyder,et al.  Can high stakes national testing improve instruction: reexamining conventional wisdom , 2000 .

[10]  K. Samimy,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations in English Language Teaching: The ELEC Effort in Japan, 1956-1968 , 1989 .

[11]  Kathleen M. Bailey,et al.  Working for washback: a review of the washback concept in language testing , 1996 .

[12]  P. Mickan,et al.  The preparation practices of IELTS candidates: Case studies , 2009 .

[13]  Yoshino Watanabe.  Teacher Factors Mediating Washback , 2004 .

[14]  Qi Luxia.  Stakeholders’ conflicting aims undermine the washback function of a high-stakes test , 2005 .

[15]  Elana Shohamy,et al.  Test impact revisited: washback effect over time , 1996 .

[16]  Chih-Min Shih.  A New Washback Model of Students' Learning , 2007 .

[17]  J. Charles Alderson,et al.  TOEFL preparation courses: a study of washback , 1996 .

[18]  Dianne Wall,et al.  Introducing new tests into traditional systems: insights from general education and from innovation theory , 1996 .

[19]  Noel Entwistle,et al.  Styles of learning and teaching , 1981 .

[20]  S. Ross.  L. Cheng, Y. Watanabe, and A. Curtis (eds): Washback in Language Testing: Research Contexts and Methods. Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, 2004 , 2005 .

[21]  Peter Mickan,et al.  An ethnographic study of classroom instruction in an IELTS preparation program , 2008 .

[22]  Anthony Green,et al.  Ielts Washback in Context: Preparation for Academic Writing in Higher Education , 2007 .

[23]  A. Hughes.  Testing for language teachers , 1989 .

[24]  M. Fullan.  The New Meaning of Educational Change , 1990 .

[25]  Dianne Wall,et al.  The impact of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning: can this be predicted or controlled? , 2000 .

[26]  W. A. Mehrens.  Consequences of Assessment: What is the Evidence? , 1998 .

[27]  L. Resnick,et al.  Assessing the Thinking Curriculum: New Tools for Educational Reform , 1992 .

[28]  D. Wall.  The Impact of High-Stakes Examination on Classroom Teaching. , 2006 .

[29]  Hossein Barati,et al.  Changing language teaching through language testing: a washback study , 2012 .