Classroom Language Testing and Its Washback Considered

Abstract

Testing and evaluation are required by most language teachers, so it is often necessary to give tests. Though teachers may have no choice but to give tests, there are also good reasons to do so, and if the tests and their results are used wisely, there are even benefits of testing, both for the students and teachers. In this paper, reasons for testing and how testing can be used in classroom-based evaluation are to be discussed. Though there exist different purposes of testing, tests are being underused if they are used only to evaluate how much students have achieved. The most neglected purpose of testing, however, is not only to allow students to see how well they are doing and how much progress they have made, but also to motivate students. This effect is called washback effect. When students know that they will be tested, that knowledge influences what they study and how they study, because studying certain materials or in a certain way will help them do well on the tests. The problem is that washback has the potential to be either beneficial or harmful in classroom settings. In order to avoid harmful washback, it is necessary to consider validity, reliability and especially test specifications which are an official statement by teachers of what tests cover. It is true that not everything covered in a class, or everything that students know about the language they are studying, can be covered in a test. However, the test specifications help the teacher make principled decisions about what to include in the test and how it is tested.