Experiences of washback


Colleagues involved in EAP assessment may experience washback in a range of ways during their careers in teaching and assessment. Figure 1 below provides a series of views related to washback in EAP assessment, which may reflect some of your own experiences.


Standardized EAP tests are all-pervasive; they’re in every country that you go to and people are training to take these tests and to answer set questions, rather than actually learning the language and the broader set of skills. The results of these tests also seem to be very variable.


Somewhere like China, you just see the sheer volume; you don’t get the same idea in Britain at all. These commercially available EAP tests are like a kind of machine which processes thousands of students every month … So, that is an impact of these exams that I personally find very problematic in terms of trying to help someone really develop their skills.


I have encountered negative washback many times in my career. The things that you’re testing the students on are not necessarily the things that are covered on the course that has been taught.


I aim to create writing tasks in my teaching and assessment which create positive washback. For example, in many situations, discursive essays are not relevant. We need to use assessment models which reflect what students are actually going to have to do in their academic study.


By the time students get to university, they have already trained for standardized EAP tests so much that they find it difficult to move away from the restricted view that they have experienced. In a sense, I think there’s no point fighting the external forces behind these testing organizations, as they are an unavoidable symptom of the marketization of education.


Figure 1: Experiences of washback Task 8


• How do the views expressed in Figure 1 compare to your own experiences of washback in EAP assessment?


• What suggestions do you have for improving some of the negative situations which are created through washback?


• Do you agree that washback is ‘an unavoidable symptom of the marketization of education’?


Chapter 11: Washback 135


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