Learning and testing alignment: towards positive washback
Workshop E
Description
Washback has been a concept of learning and assessment for almost 30 years. The notion dictates that a test will have an effect on the learning process linked to it. This effect can be both positive and negative depending on the affecting factors. What is less clear is on what are the principles that underlie this concept based.
In addition to this, it seems somewhat unusual in an environment where learning would be the principle activity, that a test should dictate what is learned. Theory would seem to indicate that assessment and testing are systematic ways of determining the extent to which a learner has learned a given subject.
Using the domain of learning and testing English for aeronautical communication, this paper will show that, if learning and assessment are aligned correctly as part of an ongoing learning process, washback is simply an integral part of this process and not a mechanism working in isolation. It will also demonstrate that an integrated process of learning and testing with a common core objective can go a long way towards reducing the challenges of assessing language proficiency in this specific purposes domain.
Learning and testing alignment: towards positive washback
Hotel Neptun - Dubrovnik, Coatia
Washback has been a concept of learning and assessment for almost 30 years. The notion dictates that a test will have an effect on the learning process linked to it. This effect can be both positive and negative depending on the affecting factors. What is less clear is on what are the principles that underlie this concept based.
In addition to this, it seems somewhat unusual in an environment where learning would be the principle activity, that a test should dictate what is learned. Theory would seem to indicate that assessment and testing are systematic ways of determining the extent to which a learner has learned a given subject.
Using the domain of learning and testing English for aeronautical communication, this paper will show that, if learning and assessment are aligned correctly as part of an ongoing learning process, washback is simply an integral part of this process and not a mechanism working in isolation. It will also demonstrate that an integrated process of learning and testing with a common core objective can go a long way towards reducing the challenges of assessing language proficiency in this specific purposes domain.