Understanding Washback in the Classrooms: The Conflicts of the Syllabus and the Examination

In many contexts where English language teaching is based on a prescribed syllabus, one of the main issues discussed is whether teachers are teaching students according to the specifications of the syllabus or are they preparing them to excel in the examination. Discussions in the literature suggest that very often, teachers focus more on examination skills than broader syllabus specifications in their teaching, creating test washback effects. This paper argues that when there are differences in the constructs of the syllabus document and the examination, teachers make a conscious decision to follow the construct of the examination. This washback effect is facilitated in some ways by teachers’ beliefs and pedagogic skills. This study explores the issues in two stages. First a document analysis of the Malaysian ESL syllabus document and the high stakes Malaysian Education Certificate English examination papers was undertaken to identify the similarities in and differences between the two documents. In the second stage, semi-structured interviews with two teachers were analysed to understand the cognitions and decision-making of teachers working with the syllabus and examination. The results of this study show that the Malaysian ESL syllabus document and the examination papers do not share similar constructs. While the specifications of the syllabus document are very communicative in nature, the examination focuses more on testing students’ language accuracy. The interviews reveal the teachers' tendency to follow the construct of the examination which was more congruent with their beliefs, skills and competencies. Keywords : English language teaching, communicative language teaching, washback