Apart from the external pressure imposed on the students and students’ internal belief about language testing and learning, two possible mediating factors surrounding the students themselves were also investigated as follows:
(1) English learning problems in school
The first of such factors was students’ perceived problems with English learning in school. As repeatedly mentioned in the previous sections, most students’
fundamental problems with English are their low proficiency and low motivation. As a result, the morale for bettering English was generally low among students, which inevitably affected not only low-achieving students but also some high-achieving students’ willingness to study English or prepare for the English exit exam. Student A14, a high-achieving senior student majoring in Electrical Engineering at School A, described the learning atmosphere among his peers in the following account:
Excerpt 62
Interviewer: Do you have any difficulty learning English at your school?
Student A14: Well, I think it’s OK.
Interviewer: What about the learning atmosphere in your class? Did it influence
you in some way?
Student A14: Oh, yes, it did. The learning atmosphere is very bad among them (other students). They all come to me when they have problems with English.
Another common problem with English learning in school is that too much attention was paid to low-achieving students, while high-achieving students’ needs were in some way being neglected. A number of low-achieving students complained in the interview that there seemed to be too many English classes for them to take, especially in School B, where students in the Elementary classes were required to take two extra hours of English class in the evening. Student B13, a first-year Industrial Management major in the two-year undergraduate program and placed into the Elementary class at School B, complained in the interview:
Excerpt 63
Interviewer: What about the GEPT preparation class in the evening (sponsored
by the MOE’s Teaching and Learning Excellence Project)?
Student B13: Because we have to go to the evening classes, we can not go to some of those classes. But actually, I think those classes were just a waste of time.
Interviewer: Why? Your school has offered so many English classes for students
in order to help you pass the test.
Student B13: Like last semester, we were required to take not only the evening classes, but also our TA’s review sessions, so I feel that…
Interviewer: Wow, there were indeed a lot of classes.
Student B13: That’s right. However, we’ve taken a lot of classes, but we did not absorb everything from the class, or, because our English proficiency is very low, they should not give us too much to take. Too much at a time can increase only learning difficulties, then one can not but think, “Anyway, I just can not make it!” and give up.
Interviewer: OK. So you think students, like you mentioned, should not be given
too many lessons at a time?
Student B13: Yes. If they (the school) want to improve our English, and make us go to classes again and again and again, we would only feel bored.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, high-achieving students felt that English was not emphasized in school. For example, Student B3, a sophomore in Chemical Engineering at School B with perhaps the highest English proficiency among all student participants, said:
Excerpt 64
Interviewer: Have you encountered any difficulty with learning English in your
school? For example, like learning facilities, or learning atmosphere.
Student B3: Yes, I think the learning atmosphere is not very good, maybe because most of our students are vocational high school graduates. But another thing is, I think our school does not put too much emphasis on English.
Interviewer: Yes.
Student B3: Like when I just entered college, I was about to take English as my minor, but the Department of Applied English did not offer such a program.
I think it was a pity.
Interviewer: Yes.
Students B3: And we have English classes only in the first and second year.
There will be no English classes for juniors and seniors.
Interviewer: So you think there are not enough English classes?
Student B3: That’s right.
The imbalanced types and amounts of classes offered for students of different levels of proficiency caused students to perceive problems with English learning in school. This factor might not have directly affected the washback on learning but it did frustrate many students in their English learning experience in school.
In addition to the above-mentioned problems perceived by both low-achieving and high-achieving students, some other students indicated the lack of opportunities to practice speaking English in class. Student A11, a senior in Electrical Engineering at School A, gave the representative account:
Excerpt 65
Interviewer: Have you ever encountered any difficulty learning English in your
school?
Student A11: Well, I think our school should offer more courses on interactive English teaching and learning.
Interviewer: Yes.
Student A11: I think we have very little practice on speaking English. I mean
“little,” because we should have more practice on that.
Interviewer: Yes.
Students A11: Because of the lack of practice on speaking English, we students’
willingness to learn is…we did not learn much in this situation.
Interviewer: What do you mean by “interactive English teaching and learning?”
Student A11: What I mean by that is conversation, or teaching something not limited to the textbook contents. I wish our class could be closer to our real life, or have more group work or role playing or other English activities…
Interviewer: You mean that the teacher should not only lecture in class.
Student A11: Yes.
Interviewer: And should provide students with more opportunities to practice
speaking.
Student A11: That’s right.
Similar opinions were also found in the interviews with some of the high-achieving students, indicating that for some students, especially high-achieving ones, their perceived problems with English learning in school was not just the limited English classes but the lack of speaking practice in class or in school.
In general, these problems mentioned above (low morale for learning English,
imbalanced classes for students of different proficiency levels and a lack of opportunities to practice speaking English in class) affected students’ English
learning in school and possibly their preparation for the GEPT test, but evidence was not strong enough to support that the little washback on learning was mediated by the three common problems with English learning in school.(2) Students’ self-rated English proficiency on a global scale
Other more “macro” aspect related to the washback on students’ learning might be how students rated their English proficiency on a global scale. When asked about their general impression on Taiwanese students’ English proficiency as compared to students in other Asian countries and compared to students in other countries around the world, the student participants’ answers were very much the same as those of the administrators and teachers; that is, most of them perceived Taiwanese students’
superiority over Japanese students in general English proficiency, but they raked their English speaking ability lower than students in other non-English speaking countries around the world. Once again, the deficiency of Taiwanese students’ English speaking ability was stressed, which, however, did not seem to have received particular attention in terms of the graduation benchmark requirement. Student B3, again, stressed the importance of English oral communication, which she believes is one major drawback of most Taiwanese students:
Excerpt 66
Like one of my friends, he is from Czech Republic. Their official language is not English and they still have to study English [as a second language]. However, he could speak out and use English in any real-life situation. I think one of Taiwanese students’ major disadvantages is that we know how to read and write in English, but we are very weak in speaking English. If you want to communicate with people from other countries, the most important is to communicate with them orally in English. (Student B3)
However, this macro factor might not be strong enough to mediate washback on learning, either.
Summary.
In summary, a number of possible mediating factors were investigated through interviews with students for their connection to washback of the graduation benchmark on learning. Externally, the students perceived the pressure from parents, teachers, peers and the real world, of which the last one seemed to be the most effective in activating students’ intrinsic motivation to learn English, since simply pushing students to pass the test did not seem to work well. Internally, the majority of the students recognized the power of tests to push them to study; however, some students expressed their conditional preference for tests only when the fairness of tests was guaranteed and the massive use of multiple choice questions was avoided. Still others indicated the disadvantages of tests, such as that tests facilitate only short-term
memory, low-achieving students were doomed to fail and high-achieving students were indifferent to tests. However, not enough evidence shows that the washback on learning was mediated by students’ different beliefs about testing. In terms of students’ beliefs about the best method for learning English, most student participants showed their priority of learning English through listening and speaking over reading and writing, which might have affected their willingness to prepare for the GEPT reading and listening test, but there was no concrete evidence to prove that the washback on learning was thus mediated.
Other possible mediating factors investigated include one micro factor regarding students’ perceived English learning problems in school, and one macro factor related to how students rated their English proficiency on a global scale. The former was viewed from three perspectives and concluded as follows: the general moral for enhancing English was low, the types and amounts of classes offered for students of different levels of proficiency did not suit students’ needs, and there was a lack of opportunities to practice speaking English in class. These perceived problems in school did affect students’ English learning in school, but might not be strong enough to mediate washback on learning. The latter (macro factor) repeatedly stresses the importance of improving students’ English speaking ability as compared to students from other countries, indicating there was an apparent gap between students’ concerns and the English exit exam requirement. Again, as mentioned earlier about students’
beliefs about language learning, the gap between students’ concerns and the test requirement might have affected their willingness to prepare for such a test, but it may not be large enough to claim its influence on washback on learning.