TheWashback Effect of English National Examination on the XII Grade English Teachers’ Classroom Teaching (A Case Study at Three Secondary Schools in Bandung, West-Java)  

Oleh:

Mardiani, Ridha

Jenis: Article from Proceeding
Dalam koleksi: 57th TEFLIN International Conference: Revitaziling professionalis in ELT as a response to the globlazed world, Bandung, 1-3 November 2010
Topik: Assessment; the washback effect; National Examination (NE); seven areas of teaching affected by washback; the dimensions of washback
Fulltext: Ridha Mardiani.pdf (96.96KB)

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This paper reports a study on the effect of language tests on language teaching and learning, which is known as washback (Hughes, 1989; Alderson and Wall, 1993; McNamara, 2000; Brown, 2004; Cheng, 2004; Fulcher and Davidson, 2007) in a particular case of National Examination in Indonesia, which could be regarded as a high-stakes test. NE is the latest form of a school leaving examination starting from 2005 until now. According to chapter 2 of the Decree No.34/2007 from the Ministry of National Education or Permendiknas, the main goal of NE is to measure and assess the students’ knowledge and competence in particular subject they have learned. To pass NE the candidates should pass the passing grade of NE employed by the government. The passing grade started from 3.01 in the school year 2002/2003 until finally 5.50 in the school year 2009/2010. From previous NE administration, some problems arouse which can be identified as follows: a) the increase of NE passing grade every year caused “burden” to the teachers; b) NE only measures cognitive skills; c) some deceits during NE administration; d) the case of NE preparation which lead to “teaching to the test”; e) teachers’ feelings stresses and under pressure. The purposes of this study are to find out the areas in the twelft grades English teachers’ classroom teaching which are affected by the washback effect of English National Examination and to identify the dimensions of the washback effect of English National Examination on the XII grade English teachers’ classroom teaching. This study employed a qualitative research design, embracing characteristics of a case study using multi sites contexts (Nunan, 1992) combined with several data collection techniques (Cresswell, 2008; Merriam, 1988; Silverman, 2005). The participants of the study were the XII grade English teachers from three secondary schools in Bandung West-Java, which were categorized into school A (high-level achiever), school B (moderate-level achiever) and school C (low-level achiever) under justification of NE achievement for the last three years (Cresswell, 1998; Maxwell, 1996; Miles and Huberman, 1984). The data were taken from teachers’ questionnaires, teachers’ interviews and classroom observation. Data analysis were conducted in several steps a) focusing on emerging themes; b) organizing the data; c) coding the data as follows: Theme 1: The areas of classroom teaching affected by the washback effect of English National Examination. Based on previous washback studies (Alderson and Wall, 1993; Cheng, 2005; Spratt, 2005, Chen, 2002) the areas are: 1) Activity/Time Arrangement; 2) Teaching Material; 3) Teaching Content; 4) Teaching Methods; 5) Teaching Strategies; Theme 2: The dimensions of washback (Positive or Negative), (Weak or Strong), (Short or Long) washback on the XII grade English teachers’ classroom teaching. The findings revealed that 1) there was negative washback effect of English National Examination on the XII grade English teachers’ classroom activities which mainly implemented activities to promote their students’ test taking strategies; 2) All respondents also gave additional or extra time to their students for NE preparation; 3) there was negative washback on English teachers’ teaching material in which they spent more time instructing reading than communication skills, because they think reading took greater part to be tested on NE; 4) the teachers used material in addition to the students’ textbook, such as students’ worksheets to review questions expected on NE and NE previous tests in order to familiarize them with NE; 5) there was negative washback of NE on teachers’ methods because teachers would do whatever methodology they felt most expedient to help them prepare their students for NE, one of the methods was “practicing the test” and “teaching to the test” (Alderson and Wall, 1993; Smith, 1991); 6) there was negative washback on teachers’ teaching content in which the students practiced “test-like” items similar in format to those on the test (Bailey, 1996; Shohamy et al., 1996); 7) there was negative washback on teachers’ teaching strategies in a way that teachers taught according to the test format, to exercise more on NE format, which promoted the students to pass NE (Jane, et al., 1999); 8)The dimensions of the washback effect of NE were positive and negative, specific, strong and for a short period of time. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that NE strongly affected the XII grade English teachers’ classroom teaching. The negative washback dominated the areas in English teachers’ classroom teaching: 1) Activity/Time arrangement, 2) Teaching material, 3) Teaching content, 4) Teaching methods; 5) Teaching strategies. The dimensions of the washback effect of NE on the twelfth grade English teachers’ teaching were positive and negative, specific, strong and for a short period of time. The writer suggested that the government should enhance NE administration in terms of the quality of the tests and NE surveillance. Further researches on washback study are needed particularly in the case of NE in order to have a thorough and a more comprehensive result.

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