The Washback Effect of IELTS

The Washback Effect of IELTS

The washback effect of tests on teaching has been studied comprehensively over recent years, but the critical issue of how washback affects learning remains under-explored. On the other hand another aspect of learning that is being concerned these days is learning online that will be generally allocated in a group which is called E-learning. To address the issue of washback, questionnaires relating to the speaking instruction are distributed to learners preparing for General IELTS, studying via e-learning IELTS courses or through non IELTS e-learning courses in Iran. The same questions are given to learners at course entry and at course exit and the results are compared between courses. The results show that learners’ expectations and perceptions of course outcomes are affected by the course focus significantly. https://ecsielts.com/ In this study, test preparation courses, as predicted by washback theory, did appear to cover a relatively narrower range of skills than other types of courses.

A.STUDENTS EXPECTATIONS AT COURSE ENTRY (QUESTIONNAIRE A) Students had high expectations of course content on both course types. As a result, learners expected to learn most of the listed items. However, there were differences between IELTS preparation and non-IELTS courses in the ratings given to items (Table 2). ECS IELTS For non-IELTS learners, the four highest rating items at course entry were: xI expect to learn how to become able to use English in different contexts (item 11). x I expect to learn how to communicate my ideas effectively in speaking (item 9). x I expect to learn how to find information from books to use in speaking (item 12). xI expect to learn how to speak fluently in communicating with native speakers of English. (item 7) For the students of IELTS preparation courses the highest ranking items were: xI expect to learn words and expressions for describing different IELTS topics (item 6). xI expect the activities we do in class will be similar to the ones on the IELTS test (item 16). xI expect to learn how to speak well in test situation (item 17). xI expect my teacher to correct my grammar mistakes while I am speaking (item 15). Reflecting the different focus of the two course types, Mann–Whitney U-tests indicated significant (P < .01) differences between non-IELTS and IELTS learners for the following five items:

1. I expect to learn ways of improving my English language test scores. (Item 5)

2. I expect to learn words and expressions for describing different IELTS topics. (Item 6)

3. I expect my teacher to correct my grammar mistakes while I am speaking. (Item15)

4. I expect the activities we do in class will be similar to the ones on the IELTS test. (Item16)

5. I expect to take practice tests in class. (Item 19)

This implies that the IELTS preparation students are more concentrated on the grammar, test, and test taking strategies. Therefore, the differences between the rankings given by the learners on the two course types suggest that they arrived on their courses with unparallel expectations of course content. According to the last part of the table (fluency in contexts of language use), it is obvious that although the difference is not significant, non-IELTS students have shown much higher mean ranking of items 7 and 11 than IELTS students. Comparing other items among the two groups, it can be observed that although the differences are not significant, non-IELTS students have ranked the items under the subjects of use of books/journals, subject specificity, formal style, and general vocabulary higher than non-IELTS ones.

B.STUDENT EVALUATIONS AT COURSE EXIT (QUESTIONNAIRE B) At course exit, once more, the students were required to rate the same activities and objectives in a different form. While at entry they had indicated what they were expecting to learn, now students were asked to rate what they felt they had learned during their courses. As might be anticipated, since students were evaluating their experiences during the course, the ratings were generally lower than at course entry (Table 3). At this stage, item 15 (My teacher corrected my grammar mistakes while I was speaking.) was the highest ranked item on both course types. The next three highest ranked items on each course type received very different mean ratings. Below are the remaining high-ranking items for non-IELTS learners. The three highest ranking items for non-IELTS students concerned general vocabulary, grammar focus, and use of books/journals. 2. Item 2: I learned general vocabulary. 3. Item 10: I learned grammar. 4. Item 9:I learned how to communicate my ideas effectively in speaking. It can be observed that just one of the items has been identified with non-IELTS learners in the pilot stage (item 9). The following items received the second to fourth highest mean ratings (concerning test format, test preparation strategies, and general vocabulary) from IELTS learners: 2. Item 6: I learned words and phrases for describing different IELTS topics. 3. Item 16: The activities we did in class were similar to the ones on the IELTS test. 4. Item 2: I learned general vocabulary. Three of the four (items 15, 6, and 16) had been identified with IELTS preparation students in the pilot phase, but the fourth one (item2) was not. The high ratings given to these four items suggests that test preparation was understood by these students to have a traditional focus on vocabulary and grammar including elements specifically targeted at the test. Mann–Whitney U-tests indicated significant differences between learners on the two course types on 4 of the 19 items. Two items were generally rated higher by IELTS preparation than non-IELTS learners. IELTS learners reported significantly (P < .01) greater emphasis on leaning words and phrases for describing IELTS topics and the use of IELTS-like tasks in the classroom: Item 6: I learned words and phrases for describing IELTS topics. Item 16: The activities we did in class were similar to the ones on the IELTS test. The remaining items displaying significant (P < .01) differences were given higher mean ratings by non-IELTS students include: Effective speaking/organization: Item 9: I learned how to communicate my ideas effectively in speaking. Use of books/journals: Item 13: I learned how to use ideas from books and journals in my speaking.

The differences in the ratings given to these items by both groups would seem to support the idea that IELTS preparation might under-represent some of the skills which are believed to be required for an English proficient person. The lack of agreement in expectations between the learners on the two course types reflected in the difference of responses to Questionnaire A and B is an indicator of the washback of the IELTS test to the learners and also to the programme. Therefore, these results confirm the teachers’ claim (in interviews) that they felt obliged to concentrate the instruction on the exam. The comparison between questionnaire A and B of the two groups also indicates that there is much more convergence between the before course expectations and after course perceptions of the IELTS students than the non-IELTS learners.

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