New Trends in English Language Teaching and Testing

Language Testing at Basic Levels: Interlanguage and Washback Effect Turan PAKER Pamukkale University, Faculty of Education Correspondence: [email protected] The basic levels; A1, A2 and independent user level B1 should be treated and designed differently in assessment and evaluation compared to other upper levels as they go through interlanguage period. In these levels, the purpose of assessment should be only diagnostic, otherwise it may lead to negative backwash effect in language learning process. In this context, teachers should be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student and design various activities and tasks to create awareness and support their learning without damaging the individual’s self-confidence and self-esteem. The aim of the study is to identify the interlanguage of students in language learning process in these levels, and analyze the existing test items and show the inconsistencies between teaching and assessment in language learning. For this purpose, some exam papers have been collected from various levels and observation reports of pre-service teachers have been analyzed. The findings reveal that accuracy is paramount, test items focus on structure and usually objective test items. In addition, the paper discusses about how damaging the attitude of the teachers about the exam resultsin language classes as a result of mismatch between the expectations of teachers and learners through examples and various metaphors.

Keywords: assessment and evaluation, basic language levels, interlanguage, washback effect

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