Construct ambiguity and test difficulty generate negative washback: The case of admission test of English Literature to graduate programs in Iran

Abstract

High stake tests are known to drive curricula and affect teachers and learners in numerous ways. In applied linguistics, this has come to be known as test washback. Thus far, almost all washback studies have focused on national or international language proficiency tests. There are scarce, if any, research studies addressing the washback of high stakes tests of English literature. The current study examined the washback effect of the English Literature Module of the Admission Test of English Literature (ATEL) on test takers' learning and attitudes as well as on test preparation materials. For this purpose, 100 graduate students of English literature from Iranian state universities completed a questionnaire designed to measure the washback of ATEL. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and t-test. The results revealed that the test significantly influenced both test takers' attitudes and their learning of English literature. More specifically, it was found that the test, being beyond the zone of proximal challenge, causes most test takers to forsake the entire English literature module in favour of the general proficiency module and to hold negative attitudes towards the test.