The washback effect of testing on students’ learning in EFL writing classes

Abstract

This study displays the literature review that investigates what the drawbacks of exams are on learning in general, then gives a brief account of a small scale research conducted in two EFL writing classes. There has been extensive research in related literature on the impact of testing on students learning a foreign lan-guage. In practice most of the teachers assess their students with scheduled exams which they conduct in accordance with the syllabuses prepared at the beginning of the semester. The level and form of the negative effects change according to some factors such as gender, age, the aim and level of learning. This study investigated the negative effects of testing and their reasons on elementary level EFL students' writing. The results indicate that learners' anxiety level increase and their per-formance decrease when they know that it is an assessment.