Abstract
The introduction or revision of a test may affect its stakeholders, such as teachers and students. These effects are called washback and play an important role in English education in Japan. In 2021, a national standardized test for Japanese university admissions was revised for the first time in three decades. This paper aims to investigate the washback of the revised standardized test, known as the Common Test, on classroom English tests in Japanese senior high schools. In this study, thirty-two classroom English tests conducted at Japanese senior high schools were collected and analyzed to see the differences in the characteristics of the tests between the period before the Common Test (pre-2020) and after the Common Test (post-2020). The findings reveal that the Common Test appears to influence the classroom English tests in terms of listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, and especially reading. Possible factors for these impacts include the increase in the number of words used in the Common Test, the increase in the total score allotted to the listening component, and the removal of test items that assess pronunciation, vocabulary, while grammar items remained relatively unchanged. Although more longitudinal studies and more various types of evidence of the washback effects of the Common Test are necessary, the changes in classroom tests observed through this study could be considered an indication of the washback.
https://ror.org/03zyp6p76 
