This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section (i.e. writing subtest as in this paper) of College English Test Band Four (CET-4) on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to prom...This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section (i.e. writing subtest as in this paper) of College English Test Band Four (CET-4) on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to promote the positive effects and diminish the negative ones. The study collected data from 181 college English learners, nine college English teachers and two CET-4 raters through interview, observation and documentary analysis. Findings indicate that CET-4 writing subtest produces more negative impacts than positive ones. Moreover, the findings also indicate that the washback of CET-4 writing is weakened by other sections of the test.展开更多
文摘This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section (i.e. writing subtest as in this paper) of College English Test Band Four (CET-4) on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to promote the positive effects and diminish the negative ones. The study collected data from 181 college English learners, nine college English teachers and two CET-4 raters through interview, observation and documentary analysis. Findings indicate that CET-4 writing subtest produces more negative impacts than positive ones. Moreover, the findings also indicate that the washback of CET-4 writing is weakened by other sections of the test.