INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study To promote an effective EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching
methodology, Dunkel (1993), Krashen (1982) and other researchers suggest
comprehensible input as an important factor in second language acquisition.
More specifically, they emphasize the importance of a comprehension-before-
production approach in facilitating learners' improvement in listening
comprehension of a language. Particularly interested in the approach, Nunan
(1999) carried out several studies and concludes that the incorporation of
authentic data into the teaching of listening plays an important part in
improving EFL learners' ability to comprehend the oral language and get
achievement in listening comprehension skills. Realizing the effectiveness of such approach, for the past three
years, Division 1 of English Department - CFL - VNUH has compiled and made
use of a new set of course book for the four macro English skills. These
content-based course books emphasize the use of authentic materials and
communicative skills development and encourage first year students to take
an active role in their class activities. Of the four course books,
Practise your listening skills has received great acceptance from both
teachers and students for its easy-to-follow structure, stimulating
contents and useful inputs. Such a change in teaching syllabus requires changes in assessment.
Since testing is closely related to what is taught and is subject to
whatever changes taking place in course books. Regarding this newly
developed English listening course book, the evaluation of students'
improvement is done through continuous assessment. One component of this is
the end-term English listening test, a kind of achievement test that first
year students are required to sit for at the end of a semester. As the test
accounts for 50% of the total final score, it is supposed to affect the
students in many aspects. This achievement test is also supposed to be
meaningful since Hughes (2001, p.10) reasons that "achievement tests are
directly related to language courses, their purpose being to establish how
successful individual students, groups of students, or the courses
themselves have been in achieving objectives". It is also notable that "the
overall aim in achievement tests should be to try to get students to use
language receptively and productively that they have learnt during the
course, but in altered contexts so that they actively have to deploy known
language items (structures and lexis) in novel contexts" (Weir, 1993, p.5). While such a test may have influences on students, it may at the same
time affect the teachers in many ways, for testple time allocation,
teaching contents and materials, teaching methodology, feelings and
attitudes. In their study in a Nepalese educational context, Herman and
Golan (1993, cited in Chen, 2002, p.3) reported that over 50% of the
teachers admitted that they would give substantial attention to mandated
tests in their instructional planning and delivery. In devising their
syllabi for instruction, they would look at prior tests to assure that they
covered the subject matter of the test or test objectives. Shohamy et.al.
(1996), Cheng (1995) and Wantanabe (1996) also addressed teachers' use of
past papers and test-oriented textbooks in sessions near test time. These
researchers at the same time mentioned teachers' feeling and attitudes
towards testing process and test scores. It is evidential that there is a
chance for the test to influence teachers, either positively or negatively.
Regarding the testing context of English listening comprehension
skills in Division 1 - English Department - CFL, for the past three years,
end-term tests have always been constructed following a fixed process with
stages as suggested in Hughes (2001). Teachers as testers have got
opportunities to take part in writing the tests and delivering them. Also,
there have been workshops on designing listening tests (Pham et al, 2007)
and evaluating the validity and reliability of the tests (Tran & Cao,
2006). Yet, little concern has been paid to the washback effect of those
tests on teachers and learners, i.e. how such tests influence teachers'
teaching and students' learning, and how positive washback can be maximized
and negative washback be minimized. These above gaps have encouraged the researcher to choose "Evaluation
of an end-term listening test for first year mainstream students of English
Department - College of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National University" as
the topic of her research with the scope limited to evaluating the washback
effects of the test. The study is hoped to be a modest contribution to good
testing for better use of the Listening course book and more effective
learning for first year mainstream students. 2. Aims and objectives of the study Due to time limitation, the study aims to primarily seek for evidences
of washback effects of the second semester end-term English listening test
on teachers and students of K41 in English Department - CFL. More
specifically, it focuses on: (1) Investigating the washback effects that the second end-term
listening test has on teachers of listening skill for K41
students; (2) Investigating the washback effects that the second end-term
listening test has on K41 students of English department; (3) Evaluating whether such evidences of washback (if any) are
positive or negatives to teachers and students; (4) Proposing ways to enhance the positive impacts and to minimize
the negative effects of the test on teachers' teaching and
students' learning. 3. Scope of the study It would be too ambitious for this small-scaled study to cover all
aspects of testing, a broad field of language teaching methodology, within
a short time and with limited reference materials. Therefore, the study is
limited to the washback effects of the end-term listening test of the
second semester that K41 students (academic year 2007-2008) sat for. The
reasons for this choice are as follow. Firstly, in the first semester, the students are totally new to the
university. It takes time for them to get acquainted to their classmates,
their teachers' teaching methods, their learning contents, the assessment
practices and to generate their learning styles. While a number of students
possess quite good listening abilities, many others are completely strange
to the skills as they have never done it in their English learning at high
schools. Some are even afraid of it. Therefore, it seems unfair to judge
the effects of the tests on them. Meanwhile, in the second semester, every
student has experienced listening lessons for fifteen successive sessions,
and they are assumed to have developed some basic study skills. As some
students state that the second semester influence them more strongly,
experience gained during this semester may orient students better for their
next academic year. Hence, the researcher's intention of finding how test-
taking experience and test feedbacks (test scores) can be best answered
after the second semester's test. Secondly, K41 students (academic year 2007-2008) have just passed
their first year at the university so they would definitely be the most
suitable group to date to be studied for the purpose of this research. 4. Research questions On the basis of the abovementioned aims and objectives, the study is
conducted to answer the following questions: (1) What are the washback effects of the test on teachers' teaching
content, teaching methodology, attitudes and behaviors? Are they positive
or negative? (2) What are the washback effects of the test-taking experience and
test results on K41 students in terms of their learning content, learning
progress, self-image, motivation, learning attitudes and their relationship
with teachers? Are they positive or negative? 5. Research methodology The study is approached both quantitatively and qualitatively. Semi-
structured interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations are used
as data collection tools. The collected data are then analysed
qualitatively and quantitatively. Participants for the study are: (1) 50 students as respondents to
student questionnaires; (2) 12 teachers as respondents to teacher
questionnaires. From these two groups, two teachers and two students are
randomly selected for subsequent interviews. 6. Significance of the study As expertise in assessment is still lacking in Vietnam and testing and
evaluation is also an under-researched area; the study provides a reliable
and profound background on the matter, which can be used as reference for
future studies on similar topics. Besides, it helps the researcher gain
more knowledge and skills in this field during the research process. Practically, the study may provide an insight into test washback, an
area rarely investigated in a university educational context. By looking
for evidences of washback effects, the study highlights the close
relationship between teaching - learning and testing, and therefore, may be
a source of reference in the attempt to better teaching and learning, and
improve testing. The study is also expected to be useful for all the
researcher's colleagues and anyone who is concerned about the matter of
testing in general