(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2015-03) Ahmed, Nazi
The aim of this small-scale study is to look at the washback effect,
positive or negative, of teaching IELTS in a tertiary vocational school in
the UAE. The research was carried out on two Grade 12 classes – one
that was taking an Academic English Course and one that was a purely
IELTS preparation class. An effective understanding of the effects of
washback is relevant and important in today’s times when high-stakes
exams have become inevitable to seek admission into universities or to
seek jobs. The present study follows 40 Grade 12 students’ performance
in English Exams over the last two years to explore the possibility of
washback effects on teachers and students due to a strict IELTS
preparation course being taught.
To conduct this study, English exam marks of the two grade 12 classes
were collected for the past two years at the Applied Technology High
School in Abu Dhabi. These test scores were then compared using the ttest
to validate or reject the null hypothesis that there is no washback
effect of teaching to a test. The findings of the study indicate that negative
washback can be seen in the teaching and learning of students in the
IELTS preparation class while students in the AE class showed better
English language proficiency.