The impact of an exit English test on Hong Kong undergraduates: A study investigating the effects of test status on students' test preparation behaviours.

摘要

The notion that testing exerts influence on teaching and learning is accepted by many. In Hong Kong, some educationalists indeed see tests and examinations as one way of instilling positive changes in learners' learning. In 1993, amidst growing concern that Hong Kong students' standard of English was declining, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) proposed to the then University and Polytechnic Grants Committee that a Graduating Students' Language Proficiency Assessment (GSLPA) be devised and introduced to encourage university students to improve their English proficiency.; In 1999, the GSLPA-English was mandated by the PolyU as a university exit English test for its graduates. There was no accompanying formal teaching/learning curriculum, as the test was intended to assess students' level of English proficiency rather than their achievement in some taught English courses. Whilst it was reasonable to expect that some students in this university would engage in some form of learning activities to help them learn/train for their exit English test, it was not clear exactly how these students - of their own accord, without a specified learning syllabus and receiving no input from teachers in the regular English classroom - would approach test preparation.; Hitherto, there has been little research on how washback operates for learners rather than teachers. This study was principally motivated by a desire to better understand learners as participants in the washback cycle. It investigated how a sample of PolyU graduating students perceived the GSLPA-English as a university exit English test, and whether and how they prepared for it. Initially, the study found that this test was perceived by many respondents as lacking in status and stakes, and that not many took steps to prepare for it. The GSLPA-English was superseded by the IELTS-CEPAS in 2002, when the University Grants Committee, in a further attempt to raise students' awareness of the importance of English proficiency, chose to adopt the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) over the GSLPA-English and other English tests as the test of choice for Hong Kong's territory-wide common English proficiency assessment scheme (CEPAS) for university graduates. Insofar as the stated functions of a university exit English test are concerned, i.e. as a tool for assessing students' English proficiency and as a source of motivation to encourage students to improve their English, the GSLPA-English and the IELTS-CEPAS had identical functions. However, as regards test status, these two tests differed significantly from each other in that the former was a locally developed test adopted by a single institution only, whereas the latter was an internationally recognised test implemented territory-wide in Hong Kong and with overt government sanction.; This study took advantage of a timely opportunity to test a washback hypothesis, put forth by Alderson and Hamp-Lyons (1996: 296), which states that the status/stakes of a test will affect the amount and type of washback. The research investigated whether, given the differences in test status described above, perceptions of the exit English test and test preparation behaviours would be similar, or different, between students who sat the GSLPA-English and those who sat the IELTS-CEPAS. The ultimate purpose was to determine the role of test status in mediating washback on learners.; The study investigated and compared the nature and extent of the test preparation activities reported by two samples of PolyU students. The first sample sat the GSLPA-English in its last year of implementation in April 2002, while the second sat the IELTS-CEPAS during its first year in 2002/2003. The data collection method included questionnaire surveys for collecting quantitative data, and semi-structured interviews for obtaining in-depth qualitative data. A final supplementary study was conducted in February/March 2004 to shed further light on some ob