The Impact of Tests in Students Perceptions and Attitudes...

WASHBACK EFFECT ON STUDENTS 1

The Impact of Tests in Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Their Learning Task.

Melina Calderón Castro - 20112165005

Santiago Aldana Vega - 20091165066

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

Facultad de Ciencias y Educación

Proyecto curricular Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés

Bogotá, 2017



Melina Calderón Castro

Santiago Aldana Vega

Martha Candia Hurtado, M.A.

Tutor

A monograph submitted as a requirement to obtain my undergraduate degree


Facultad de Ciencias y Educación

Proyecto curricular Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés

Bogotá, 2017



Note of acceptance

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Juror

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Juror


Abstract

This monograph explores the way the washback effect influences the students’

perceptions and attitudes towards their learning task, the participants are from an 11° in a

public school in Bogota and the test they are going to be presenting is the standardized test

Saber 11 °. This mixed method research is a case study in which the instruments to collect

the data were, a survey, applied two times and field notes. The washback effect is discussed

and the results are that the perceptions and attitudes did change when preparing the students

for the test. The change in the material, the curriculum and the dynamics of the class,

generated a change in terms of perceptions and attitudes towards assessment, autonomous

learning and their learning task, subsequently, their behavior changed too, which finally

reflected in their attitudes.

Key words: washback effect, Saber 11° test, attitudes, perceptions, English learning

process.

Resumen

Esta monografía explora la manera en que el efecto washback influencia las

percepciones y las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia su tarea de aprendizaje, los

participantes son de un grado 11° de un colegio público en Bogotá. La prueba que los

estudiantes presentarán es la prueba estandarizada Saber 11°. Este estudio de método mixto

es un estudio de caso en el que se implementaron dos encuestas y notas de campo para la

recolección de datos. El efecto washback fue discutido y comparado con los resultados de

las encuestas y las notas de campo arrojando que las perspectivas de los estudiantes y sus

actitudes cambiaron cuando se prepararon para la prueba. El cambio en el material, el


currículo y en las dinámicas de la clase generaron un cambio en términos de las las

perspectivas y las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia la evaluación, el aprendizaje autónomo

y su proceso de aprendizaje, subsecuentemente, su comportamiento cambió también, lo que

finalmente logro reflejar en sus actitudes.

Palabras clave: Efecto washback, prueba Saber 11°, actitudes, percepciones, proceso de

aprendizaje de inglés.


Table of contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 10

Justification ........................................................................................................................... 12

Problem statement ................................................................................................................ 14

Research Question ................................................................................................................ 16

Research Objectives ............................................................................................................. 16

Chapter II .............................................................................................................................. 17

Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 17

Washback effect ................................................................................................................... 17

Perceptions ........................................................................................................................... 27

Attitudes ............................................................................................................................... 29

Saber 11° Test ....................................................................................................................... 30

State of the art ....................................................................................................................... 39

Chapter III............................................................................................................................. 42

Instructional Design .............................................................................................................. 42

Theoretical foundation .......................................................................................................... 42

Pedagogical instructional objectives: ................................................................................... 46

Implementation ..................................................................................................................... 46

Teacher’s Role ...................................................................................................................... 50


Students’ role ........................................................................................................................ 53

Material’s Role ..................................................................................................................... 54

Chapter IV ............................................................................................................................ 56

Research Design ................................................................................................................... 56

Type of Research .................................................................................................................. 57

The Research Context and the Participants .......................................................................... 58

Instruments for Data Collection ........................................................................................... 58

Chapter V .............................................................................................................................. 64

Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 64

Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 85

Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 91

Glossary ................................................................................................................................ 96

References ............................................................................................................................ 98

Appendices/annexes ........................................................................................................... 102


List of tables

Table 1. Saber 11° test’s objectives

Table 2. San Pedro Claver School results on Saber 11° test.

Table 3. Description of each English level

Table 4. Conversion from numerical score to English level.

Table 5. San Pedro Claver Results on specific English test.

Table 6. Theoretical Foundation.

Table 7. First stage: Sessions/Materials/Skill/Competences

Table 8. Second stage: Sessions/Materials/Skill/Competences

Table 9. Field notes

Figures

Figure 1. A basic model of washback - Arthur Hughes (cited in Bailey, 1999)

Figure 2. San Pedro Claver School results on Saber 11° test.

Figure 3. San Pedro Claver Results on specific English test.

Figure 4: San Pedro Claver School Curriculum. 2016

Figure 5. San Pedro Claver School Curriculum. Second term. 2016

The next figures correspond to the graphics related to the data analysis of one of the

instruments for collecting data, the survey. As the questions number 5 and number 9 were

analyzed without the necessity of a graphic, they are excluded from this list.

Figure 6. Question # 1.

Figure 7. Question # 2


Figure 8. Question # 3A

Figure 9. Question # 3B

Figure 10. Question # 3C










Chapter I

Introduction

The idea at the heart of this research proposal is to analyze the students’ perceptions and

attitudes towards their learning task, in a particular situation in which they will have to

present a national test (Saber 11°) in the next months. This topic was addressed taking into

account the washback effect, which is described by Shohamy (as cited in Bailey, 1999) as

“the impact that tests have on teaching and learning” (p. 3). As the author mentions the

washback definition addresses the general impact in both processes, but, in order to give a

more specific approach to the research proposal, it was decided to address this effect just on

students. According to Hughes (as cited in Bailey, 1999) Students are described as the

participants as well as the teachers, and their perceptions and attitudes are affected as well

as the processes and the products of the learning process. The importance of the students in

this changing process is that they are the receptors of all these changes and in that way they

react to respond to these new dynamics. That is the reason why, it was decided to work

with the direct participants, the students, who are directly changing their perceptions and

attitudes because of the differences in the dynamics.

The motivation to do this research proposal was to explore the influence the test has in

the dynamics of the classroom, for this, the participants who were chosen were tenth

graders who had a minimum close up with the mocks of the national test Saber 11° and a

session of the program dedicated to the preparation for this. This was the starting point for

wondering about the factors that change under the influence of the test and the changes that

may occur deep in their perceptions and attitudes. As it is known, teachers and institutions,


also change the dynamics in order to prepare the students to get a good score. The tests’

results do not just influence students’ future but it also serves as a quality control for the

institutions, which are organized on rankings as well as teachers inside the institutions.

Adding to that, the importance of the national test, which in this country is required to

apply for the university, increases not just the pressure on the participants of the

educational process, but the idea of the necessity towards a good score and a good

performance in the preparation stage.

To finish, this research paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is a

presentation, which includes: problem statement, research question, objectives and

justification. In this part, there are exposed the main reasons to carry out this study, a

description of the context in which the research was carried out and the specific question

that was answered at the end of this project. In the second chapter there is presented the

literature review with the most relevant constructs to be addressed in this research project,

which are washback effect, perceptions and attitudes addressed by some authors. In the

third chapter, it is shown the instructional design, which includes a theoretical framework

in which there were taken into account theories like the humanistic, social cognitive and

social interactionism. The fourth chapter contains the research design, the type of research,

the research context and participants and the description of the instruments of the data

collection, and finally the fifth chapter is the data analysis in which there were discussed

the results and conclusions.


Justification

Few topics manage to link all the participants in education as a national test, students,

teachers, managers, parents etc., are engaged. During the practicum experience, this

phenomenon was evident. To get a good score is the common objective, to be the student

with the best score is the goal for many students, the teachers also wish their students and

their group to be the best as well as the managers who look for a good position in the

national rankings.

As it was possible to observe, this national test known as Saber 11° is an important

indicative of quality, effort and knowledge in this educational system. Such is the impact

and importance of these kind of standardized tests in education, that many researchers have

studied the influence of this, concluding there is not just a change in education system itself

when a test is done, but a change in a micro level too, which involves students and

particular situations inside of the classroom. In this case, the concept that was addressed

was the washback effect, which described exactly the effects of tests in the learning and

teaching processes.

Because of the relevance, it has on participants, processes, products, and also the

changes, it was possible to lightly observe during the classes with tenth graders, who were

exposed to this topic. It was decided to address washback effect and try to unveil the

possible changes, specifically, on students. Adding to that, this change in the environment

and dynamics causes changes in their perceptions and attitudes towards their learning task.

Having as a principal objective for this research project to analyze the impact the test

saber 11° has on the attitudes and perceptions of the direct participants, the students. It is


expected the answer to this inquiry contributes to understand the way students behave in

those contexts, having into account there is a change about everything they know and do in

the class. Adding to that another contribution would be to unveil these perceptions and

attitudes to be able to identify the different actions or activities which cause negative

washback and in that way to look for different alternatives to reduce it.

This research project had an impact on the students, principally in the way they had the

opportunity to express the way they felt about an important and decisive standardized test.

On the other hand, the impact in a macro- level would be the ranking in which are placed

the schools, having this in mind, it is important to highlight that these kind if tests are

important at the moment of qualifying the quality of institutions, and this causes managers

are always interested in good scores.

To finish, this research looks for a way of letting the students be heard facing situations

like these ones, in which the pressure and what is expected from them supposes a huge

effort. The participants of this research are 11th graders and are going to take the test in the

next months, they do not have the experience of an standardized test with this kind of

importance so it is expected that they are interested and concerned about what is going to

happen in the preparation activities. Adding to that, the tests these students face has a big

importance in their academic future, they have already expressed their concern and how

important they think it is. This research attempts to go deeper following the idea washback

effect is actually an important influence in this stage of the students learning process, and

that causes changes in the classroom and in the students’ actions.


Problem statement

This research proposal deals with the washback effect, which is produced by the test

Saber 11° on the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards their learning task. The

washback effect is defined as “the power of the test to affect what it goes on the classroom”

(p. 41). Buck (1988) (as cited in Bailey, 1999) “There is a natural tendency for both

teachers and students to tailor their classroom activities to the demands of the test,

especially, when the test is very important to the future of the students, and scores are used

as a measure of teacher and institutions success.

It is important to have into account the washback effect in the students’ learning process,

because the tests, and specially standardized tests like in this case, affects participants as

students and teachers, processes, curriculum and even material, which gives rise to an

impact and multiple changes in the classroom and on students. They face these situations in

different ways but principally, it changes their perceptions and attitudes towards their

learning task and in the long term, it affects their performance in the class.

The students need to get ready for the test and the preparation can affect positively or

negatively. That is why it is important to have this effect in mind when preparing the

students for the test and more important, to inquire about the changes they are suffering and

their perceptions of the class to be able to understand their behavior and devise new

strategies to avoid negative washback.

The situations, which were faced in the last practicum sessions, to come up with this

research project were based on the observation that there is actually a change in the whole

dynamic of the class when the national test Saber 11° was put into the contexts of these


students. The students are from a Public school from Bogotá and they were in 10th grade at

the moment of developing the need analysis and subsequently when they were promoted to

11th grade it was developed the data collection for the project development itself.

The need analysis, consisted in a short survey, it was focused on exploring the idea of

the students towards the test. It showed us, the students consider this test as a big step in

their academic life, they think it is a good way to determinate the level of knowledge in the

subjects and they consider it is good for them to have classes, specifically, to reinforce the

topics they think are not clear enough for answering the test. Adding to that, they expressed

that even when tests are boring, this one in particular is important and they expressed they

feel nervous for the pressure of knowing their future is going to be affected by the score

they get in the Saber 11° test. The problem, which was observed here, is related to the

nervousness the students expressed and the pressure they said they felt as they consider it

very important for their future. At the same time, there are the different kind of demands by

the teachers, new kind of activities, new instructions and new material can influence on the

students in a negative way, which is the effect teachers need to avoid.

With this research project, it is sought to unveil and analyze the changes in the students’

perceptions and attitudes, which may occur, while the preparation for the test is happening.

In that way the idea is to understand the students’ behavior at the moment of facing this

kind of situations, which, in a long term will contribute for avoiding the negative washback

and to provide better guidance and preparation for the test.


Research Question

• How does the washback effect influences the students’ perceptions and attitudes of

an 11° in a Public school in Bogotá?

Research Objectives

General objective.

• To analyze eventual variations in students’ perceptions and attitudes when preparing

for Saber 11° test.

Specific objectives.

• To describe the way washback effect affects the students.

• To identify the students’ initial attitudes and perceptions towards their English task.

• To compare the students’ attitudes and perceptions.


Chapter II

Literature Review

Bearing in mind that the changes that were analyzed, deal with the washback effect and

the influence it had on the students’ perceptions and attitudes. It is considered that the main

constructs to build up the theoretical support of this proposal are the washback effect,

addressed by different authors and different perspectives, the students’ perceptions and the

attitudes the students take when they have to face a test, in this case the test Saber 11°.

Washback effect

The washback effect is defined in a general way by Cohen (as cited in Bailey, 1999) as

the way “how assessment instruments affect educational practices and beliefs” (p. 4) taking

this definition as a starting point, it is seen washback deals with the influence and possible

factors which can change in the classroom at the moment of assessment. This notion has

come to be known as “washback” in British applied linguistics but, it has also referred to in

general education circles as “backwash”, as there is no pragmatic or semantic reason to use

one or another, both terms are going to be used indiscriminately.

The definition of the washback effect itself seems to be simple but there are many

different factors to have into account. To start, the influence of tests has been commonly

considered a powerful influence in educational context, some authors consider it as a good

influence and some others even explain it as a necessity, and that tests are vital for the

application of the curriculum.


Alderson and Wall (1993) refer to washback as” the influence of testing on teaching and

learning” (p. 115). The term is built around two opposite ideas, the first, the idea tests have

the power and should promote and encourage students and teachers to work harder and

improve learning, and the other, is the idea tests are applied to redefine curriculum and in

some way, to match the content with the standards are wanted to achieve. This alignment,

in which a new or revised examination is introduced into the education system with the aim

of improving teaching and learning, has three different names: systematic validity, defined

by Shohamy (1993). As the process which “implies the integration of tests into the

educational system and the need to demonstrate that the introduction of a new test can

improve learning” (p. 7). Curriculum alignment, which “focuses on the connection between

testing and the teaching syllabus” (p. 7) Shohamy (1993), and measurement-driven

instruction “it refers to the notion that tests should drive learning” (p. 7) Shohamy (1993).

Some authors use the term Systematic validity as washback indiscriminately. “One of the

major issues within the field of assessment in the 1990’s has been a concern with the

systemic validity of test – the so- called “washback effect” or the effect a test has on

classroom practice” (Berry as cited in Bailey, 1999, p. 4). Some others, specify the term

washback do not cover the whole definition to what systematic validity refers to, but it just

refers to it when the impact has something to do with an effect in education and in society

itself. “The washback effect sometimes referred to as the systematic validity of a test

….refers to the impact of a test on classroom pedagogy, curriculum development and

educational policy” (Pierce as cited in Bailey, 1999, p. 4).

Evidently, the two ideas, which might conceive an understanding about washback agree

with the fact there is an impact or an effect, the difference lies on the degree and the context


in which it is developed. It is better explained by Wall as cited in Cheng, L.,Y.Watanabe,

and A.Curtis. 2004), impact refers to “any of the effects that a test may have on individuals,

policies or practices, within the classroom, the school, the educational system or society as

a whole” (p. 4) whereas washback is defined as “the effects of test on teaching and

learning” (p. 4).

This, gives a clear delimitation in the term and reaffirms the idea washback deals with

two processes, teaching and learning in a classroom, which is related to the path that this

research took.

Alderson and Wall (1993) proposed a series of fifteen hypotheses to help to clarify the

concept of washback, these hypotheses are based on their experiences and on general

literature. The five hypotheses, which are directly related to the influence of washback on

learners, are:

1. A test will influence learning.

2. A test will influence what learners learn.

3. A test will influence how learners learn.

4. A test will influence the rate and sequence of learning.

5. A test will influence the degree and depth of learning.

The hypotheses give us general ideas about washback and as for Alderson and Wall can

be easily related to the different experiences teachers have to face every day, like for

example the idea students tend to study harder when they know a test is coming soon or to

practice certain skill when they know the test is focused on it. The test affects also what

they learn, for example, it is common for us as teachers to tell the specific topics to the

students for them to study which also affects the sequence in the program and the depth of


learning, all these changes because the test creates some special conditions which changes

all the dynamics in the classroom.

Dimensions

Having in mind washback effect is an important influence in the classroom and it can

represent also an indicator for bigger changes, now, it is time to distinguish some different

dimensions of the effect, conceptualized by Watanabe (Cheng, L.,Y.Watanabe, and

A.Curtis. 2004 ).

Specificity: Washback may be general or specific. General means a type of effect that

may be produced by any test and specific, refers to the type of washback that relates only to

one specific aspect of a test or one specific test type.

Intensity: Washback may be strong or weak. If the tests is strong, it will determine

everything, which happens in the classroom, and if it were weak, it would affect only a part

of the classroom events or only some students and teachers.

Length: Washback can exist in a short or for a long period of time depending on how

long the influence of the tests lasts in disappear.

Intentionality: There is unintended and intended washback, when it comes to

preparation there are numerous factors which influence the changes in classroom and in the

participants, that is why it is important to have into account both the unintended and

intended consequences of a test.

Value: Washback may be positive or negative, although it is related most commonly to

the positive one.


There is also possible to distinguish between washback in a micro-level and as a macro-

level, Bachman and Palmer (1996 ) discussed “washback as a subset of a test’s impact on

society, educational systems and individuals” (p. 65). Taking this into account, it is possible

to assume there are effects as big and important that could affect education and society and

as particular as the influence in a single student. These are called:

-Micro- level “the effect of the test on individual students and teachers”

-Macro-level: The macro- level in which the test has a bigger impact not just in

classroom but in society and education system. “They also impact on educational systems

and on society more widely: for example, test results are used to make decisions about

school curriculum planning, in migration police, or professional registration for doctors;

and the growth of a test may lead publishers and institutions to produce test preparation

materials and run test preparation courses.” (Taylor. 2005, p.155)

To have a more specific idea, there is Pearson (as cited in Bailey, 1999) who mentions

in a clearer way the factors which can be affected when it is necessary to deal with

washback effect on the participants of the class. “It is generally accepted that public

examinations influence the attitudes, behavior and motivation of teachers, learners and

parents” (p. 1). This author mentions three factors, attitudes, behavior and motivation which

goes hand in hand with Hughe’s washback model which consist in different categories and

stages as it follows.

Arthur Hughes (as cited in Bailey, 1999), mentions that "In order to clarify our thinking

about backwash, it is helpful, I believe, to distinguish between participants, process and

product in teaching and learning, recognizing that all three may be affected by the nature of

a test" (p. 9).


Here, Hughes distinguishes among three different categories and structure them as

participants, process and product. To start, he specifies a test could principally affect the

perceptions and attitudes of the participants towards their teaching and learning process.

These changes in the perceptions and attitudes may affect what the participants do in the

classroom that is to say the process, which sometimes includes practicing the kind of items

that are to be found in the test, which will affect the learning outcomes or the product of

those classes.

This, is better explained in the following graphic, which shows the three most important

factors and the way how tests may first affect participants, generating a ripple effect, which

causes the change of the processes and, in turn, the change in the products.

Figure 1. A basic model of washback - Arthur Hughes (as cited in Bailey, 1999)


As it is indicated in the graphic, students and teachers are directly affected by the

influence of tests and Hughes points out about it by clarifying: “The nature of a test may

first affect the perceptions and attitudes of the participants towards their teaching and

learning tasks” Hughes (as cited in Bailey, 1999, p. 10). These participant’s attitudes and

perceptions mentioned by Hughes as well as Pearson and Bailey, are the factors that were

identified in this research project. Adding to that, it is worth mentioning, another authors

state that “virtually, every member of the system is indirectly affected by the use of the

test” (Bachman & Palmer, 1996, p. 31), besides, the test takers and teachers are the most

directly affected.

Bachman & Palmer describe the impact on test takes in three aspects of the testing

procedure. The first one, the experience of taking and, in some cases, of preparing for the

test, the second, the feedback they receive about their performance on the test and the third

one, the decisions that may be made about them on the basis of their test scores. These

three aspects are important, taking into account the awareness of the students’ preparation

for the test, which is the main issue discussed in this research and the two following

aspects, which are decisive and influential at the moment of addressing the preparation.

Positive or negative Washback

Until this point, the term washback has been defined as an influence and a determining

factor of what happens in classroom, then, it is important to indicate some authors like for

example, Alderson and Wall, they describe it as neutral term, “the term 'washback' implies

influence, of any sort” (Alderson and Wall, 1993, p. 6). The influence of any sort can be felt

as neutral, negative if the test is “poor” or positive if the test is “good”.


Additionally, there is the affirmation there are another ways to understand this idea. For

example: the fact there is a test soon, either good or bad, it will promote a set of actions and

changes in the class, which could turn positive to the students’ learning process and to

teacher’s task or could turn out wrong to the accomplishment of these processes.

Therefore, in this case, the determinant factor is not if the test is good or bad but it is

constituted by the washback effect itself, acting in the classroom. Taking this into account,

it can be assumed washback is the effect, the characteristics of the actions the students and

teachers take as a consequence of the test are the ones which could be positive or negative.

Alderson and Wall (1993) also consider washback as “what teachers and learners do that

“they would not necessarily otherwise do” (p. 6). In this case, it is dealt with the impression

washback can be seen not just as a good influence in the classroom and in the actions the

students and teachers take, but, as a factor influencing the learning process with simple

actions. For example: to pay attention to the lesson, to prepare more conscientiously the

class, to do the homework, etc. “Hard work is more desirable than no work at all and

extrinsic motivation might be better than no motivation at all” (Alderson and Wall, 1993, p.

6).

This, supports the idea the tests are beneficial factors because it encourages the teachers

and learners to do a better job and at the same time they chase a good score in the test. This

is an important factor in the purpose of this research because it also attempts to identify the

perceptions and attitudes that can change at the moment of doing these particular actions.

These actions are focused on acquiring the skills to get a good score in the tests, in this

case, the test Saber 11°, is mainly based on reading skills, which involves competences like

inquiry of pragmatic knowledge, lexical knowledge, communicative knowledge,


grammatical knowledge, literal grammar comprehension and inferential reading (MEN

2014, p. 104). This means the new activities and preparation for the test would be based on

developing this specific skill and practicing with these specific competences in order to

improve and have a better score in the test.

“It is common to claim the existence of washback (the impact of a test on teaching) and

to declare that tests can be powerful determiners, both positively and negatively, of what

happens in classrooms” (Alderson & Wall, 1993, p. 5). At this point, the changes, which

occur in the classroom, are considered to be clearly influenced by the impact of the test, the

different actions and decisions the students and teachers depend on this impact. At the same

time any test, good or bad, has a good perception if it encourages hard work or encourages

motivation in the students.

furthermore, it is possible to say there is a negative influence whether it is a “good” of a

“poor” test, and example of this are the general concern teachers and students have when

they know there is a test coming, the anxiety. “Any learner who is obliged to do something

under pressure will perform abnormally and may therefore experience anxiety” Alderson &

Wall, 1993. p. 6). This situation is likely to be harmful for students, who fear not just about

bad scores, which, when it comes about standardized tests have a really important influence

in the future and academic life of the test takers, but, about the pressure from parents and

teachers, embarrassment, guilt and shame it might lead.

Although, washback effect has been presented as a neutral influence with positive or

negative consequences, it is necessary to address the opinion of some authors who consider

this effect can be negative or positive itself.


A clear example is given by Taylor (2005), she emphasizes the fact “Washback is

generally perceived as being either negative (harmful) or positive (beneficial)” (p. 154),

also, defines negative washback as an effect which “is said to occur when a test’s content or

format is based on a narrow definition of language ability, and so constrains the

teaching/learning context.” (Taylor, 2005, p. 154).

This can be related to experiences in which the teachers, in order to accomplish the

students to have a good score in the test, focus all their efforts and class time to teach tricks

and tips to answer the kind of questions which appeared on them. Or maybe, to develop just

the skills in which it is going to be based, ignoring another topics and even ignoring the

program itself. As for example in the Saber 11° test in which the skill that is specifically

developed is reading.

Another author is Hughes (as cited in Shohamy, 1993), who stated a set of suggestions

to promote positive washback:

1. Test the abilities whose development you want to encourage.

2. Sample widely and unpredictably.

3. Use direct teaching.

4. Make testing criterion-referenced.

5. Base achievements on objectives.

6. Ensure that the test is known and understood by students and teachers.

7. Where necessary, provide assistance to teachers.

These suggestions came out of the multiple research and experiences of Hughes, as a

test developer and teacher educator.


To finish with washback effect topic, it is necessary to point out in the importance the

tests have to teachers and students learning, teaching process and academic life, “Test and

tests results have a significant impact on the career or life chances of individual test takers

(e.g. access to education/ employment opportunities)” (Taylor, 2005, p. 155). This impact is

even more notorious in this country in which it is stated the Saber 11° is the decisive one

when access to technical and professional education after school. Taking into account the

lack of opportunities in this country in which, according to Ministry of education just 35

out of 100 students get into a professional or technical program the next semester after

finishing school, the competence to get a good score to continue studying puts a really

important pressure on students’ and parents’ shoulders.

As Pearson (1988) mentions, parents are also an important part of the education of their

children and they are affected by washback too, getting into an influence of their attitudes,

behavior and motivation. When it comes about standardized tests, which are important for

the future of their children and represents a step forward to get the goals they have been

helping to build with them, parents, tent to be more demanding and they are even more

involved in the academic life of their children. Some of them take actions like: putting more

pressure into their children’s shoulders by demanding a good score, to help with tutorials or

explanations and, even, paying for their kids to have a good and specialized preparation to

take the test.

Perceptions

It is the aim of this project proposal to identify and analyze the students’ perceptions

towards their learning task, for this purpose, the definition of this term was adressed. To


start, regarding perceptions, "it is about the various ways in which people interpret things in

the outside world and how they act based on those perceptions" Dubrin 2006 (as cited in

Arnold, & Silva, 2011, p. 160). Considering this, it is possible to say that this project

proposal, is looking for the students’ interpretations of reality, in this case the

circumstances of presenting a standardized national test, through letting the student to

express their opinions and the way they notice it is affecting their learning task.

Besides, it is important to have into account that perceptions go beyond understanding

information but they are also based on previous experiences, in this case, the experience of

the students presenting tests and preparing for those, are useful for them to face the national

test Saber 11°. Following the idea perceptions are the result of the interpretation of the

situations which occur along people’s life, they also mediate actions and decisions. Hughes

(1994) stands that “perceptions are essentially individual mental phenomena and yet main

method used to obtain these insights is through language” (p. 4). This is why it is

considered to be important to give the students the opportunity to talk about their

interpretations about their own learning task.

Additionally, and going deeper into the idea of perceptions, there is Guidére & Howard

(2006) who indicate that perceptions can be divided according to the situation in which they

are interpreted, it means that those interpretations of reality can be collective or individual.

The individual mental process is the one in which perceptions are insights and experiences

where the person elaborates his own conceptions individually based on his experience

about the world and the collective perceptions are those that are constructed from the point

of view of a group and related to collective decisions.


In this case, these authors divide perceptions and give the idea of collective and

individual interpretations. This relation with the collectivity can be seen in a classroom,

because, even when the students are individuals and have their own ways to interpret a

class or their own learning process which these authors call “perception by the sense” and

“perception by experience”, it is also possible to notice their “perceptions by reasoning and

intuition”. These are based on the collective understanding of a situation or setting which in

this case would be the place and condition they share as students.

Attitudes

Spolsky (1992) defines Attitudes as an “evaluative reaction to some referent (…)

inferred on the basis of the individuals beliefs and opinions about the referent” (p. 27).

following this idea it is possible to say the way to relate it with this proposal would be to

take the washback effect as a referent, and the response of the students based on their

experiences, opinions and perceptions would be the attitudes which are described in the

project.

Another definition and regarding also, to the second language learning process, there is

Ellis (1994) who explains attitudes as “the set of beliefs that a learner holds towards the

target language, the members of the target language group and also towards his own

culture” (p. 198). Taking this into account, this has relation with the perceptions and the

ideas they have about the language itself and the possible reaction they could have towards

the referent according to their beliefs and opinions.

Addressing the washback effect in this case, as a way to measure the attitudes, as well as

Ellis, Spolsky indicates it is a difficult process, indicates that “the exploration of attitudes


demands the exploration of beliefs and opinions” (Spolsky, 1992, p. 96). According to this,

there were used a series of questions in which the students had the opportunity to report

their agreements or disagreements to specific statements.

Saber 11° Test

In Colombia, the study of a foreign language is perceived as necessary because of the

economy, technology and multiculturalism. Bilingualism equals competitiveness is the

main idea at the heart of numerous projects and plans to teach English in the country, some

of them are: Bilingualism National program, English for Colombia, Colombia bilingual and

some others. The same idea is stated in the fact English evaluation is included in the

obligatory national Test Saber 11°, this test was born in 1968 with the name of ICFES test,

since then, it has been the indicator to quality and assessment for millions of students.

On 2014, its name was changed to Saber 11°. The test is aligned with assessments of

Basic Education to provide information to the educational community about the

development of the different competences, which should be developed during their time

through the school life.

Currently, the Saber 11° test has the following objectives:

Table 1

Saber 11° test’s objectives

Saber 11° Test’s Objectives

• To check the degree of development of the skills of students who are finishing the eleventh grade

of secondary education.


• To provide the student elements for conducting self-evaluation and development of their life

project.

• To monitor the quality of education in educational establishments in the country based on the

basic skills and standards concerning quality issued by the Ministry of Education.

• To provide information to establish indicators of benefit, both secondary education and higher

education.

• To be useful as a source of information for the construction of indicators of quality of education

and to help with the inspection and supervision of public education services.

• To provide information to establishments providing secondary education. For the exercise of self-

assessment and to perform consolidation or reorienting their teaching practices.

• To provide information that serves as a reference for the establishment of strategic national,

regional and institutional educational policies.

Note: Information retrieved from: Pruebas Saber - Ministerio de Educación Nacional de

Colombia. (2016). Mineducacion.gov.co

Bearing in mind the current objectives of the test, it is evident they are focused on a

macro and micro-level at the same time. On a macro-level impact by mentioning this test is

useful to the improvement and it influences educational system and in a micro-level by

giving the students the opportunity to do a self-assessment about their development though

their years in high school and giving them the opportunity to apply to technical and

professional education. Pruebas Saber - Ministerio de Educación Nacional de Colombia.

(2016).

Moreover, it is important to mention the difference between test and assess. Assessing is

divided into two kinds, the first one, informal assessment, which consist on incidental,


unplanned comments and responses and formal assessment, which consists on “exercises or

procedures specifically designed to tap into storehouse of skills and knowledge” (Brown,

2004, p. 5). This process is focused on teaching and learning, understanding deeply what

students know and what they can do to improve subsequent learning, this information is

commonly used to improve the processes. This is not the case of the Saber 11° test, because

this, is focused on giving a score and deals with products not with processes.

Additionally, “A test in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person’s ability,

knowledge or performance in a given domain” (Brown, 2004, p. 1). As Brown mentions it

consists in an instrument or different techniques to measure students’ performance,

following this idea it is possible to say the results imply the student abilities or to use the

term competence. In this case, the test Saber 11° deals exactly with these competences.

“Performance- based test sample the test –takers’ actual use of language, but from those

samples the test administrator infers general competence” (Brown, 2004, p. 2). This is the

functioning of the Saber 11° test, the English test is not composed by grammar or

vocabulary questions in specific but there is a reading comprehension exercise, which

involves the inquiry of pragmatic knowledge, lexical knowledge, communicative

knowledge, grammatical knowledge, literal grammar comprehension and inferential

reading (MEN 2014, p. 104). From these different competences are based the scores and

results of the test.

Competences

The Saber 11° test is based on the development of different competences, these are

defined by the MEN as the “the set of knowledge, skills and individual characteristics that


allows a person to perform actions in a given context. In the case of English it is expected

to develop communicative competence” (MEN 2006, p. 11), following this idea, the

communicative competence is divided in three sub-competences:

Linguistic competence: It refers to the knowledge of the formal resources of language

as a system and the ability to use them in the formulation of well-formed and meaningful

messages. It includes knowledge and lexical, phonological, grammar and spelling skills,

among others.

Pragmatic competence: It is related to the functional use of language resources and

comprising, firstly, a discursive competition refers to the ability to organize sentences

sequences to produce textual fragments. Second, it involves a functional jurisdiction, both

linguistic forms and functions, and how are linked to each other in real communicative

situations.

Sociolinguistic competence: It refers to the knowledge of the social and cultural

conditions that are implicit in the use of language. For example, it is used to handle comity

and other rules that order the relations between generations, social classes and groups.

Saber 11° test’s Structure

It consists of five different subjects:

• Math

• Critical reading

• Social studies and

• Natural sciences

• English


This test in focused on assessing the students’ competences at the moment of

applying their knowledge in “real” situations. It has two different types of questions,

multiple-choice questions with single answer and short answer open questions.

The test is made up of 243 questions and 45 of those correspond to the English test.

Lineamientos generales para la presentación del examen de Estado SABER 11°. (2015)

As it was said above, this test is very important for the students’ academic life and their

future, a way to promote the high scores and to motivate students to prepare harder for their

tests, there are some initiatives. Currently, the most noticeable is the Ministry of

education’s initiative “Ser pilo paga”.

This program was born from the statistics of the analysis of Saber 11° test from 2012,

when the results showed the best results were from low-income people. As a reaction for

these results, the Ministry of Education decided to put into practice this program, which

consists in a loan for students’ professional careers, this loan would be forgivable if the

career is finished successfully. In that way, the beneficiary may have the opportunity to

finish a professional career without paying any university bill. Ser pilo paga. (2016).

To provide a wider view of the test’ results, the position of the school during the last

years, and the results in the English test in specific, there were inquired about the results of

the school in the saber 11° test in 2014 and 2015. This was found:

San Pedro Claver School results on Saber 11° test.

San Pedro Claver School, which is an official school, has had satisfactory results in

Saber 11° tests in the last two years. It has always been about the average of the results

in Bogotá and in National results.


The following table and correspondent graphic shows us the results of every session in

the school (morning and afternoon session), the overall score of the school and their

comparison with the overall score in Bogotá and Colombia in results published on 2014

and 2015. The overall score goes from the minimum 0 to the maximum 500 points.

Table 2

San Pedro Claver School results on Saber 11° test.

Year Colombia

Score

Bogotá

Score

Morning session

Score

Afternoon session

score

San Pedro Claver School

score

2014 255 272 268 276 270

2015 256 273 261 270 265

Note: Data collected from: Sistema nacional de información de evaluación (2016)

www.icfesinteractivo.gov.co

Figure 2. San Pedro Claver School results on Saber 11° test.

240

245

250

255

260

265

270

275

280

Colombia score Bogotá score Morning sessionscore

Afternoon sessionscore

San Pedro ClaverSchool score

2014 2015

http://www.icfesinteractivo.gov.co/


The difference in general performance, which corresponds to 270 points for San Pedro

Claver School in 2014, is even higher than the overall score in Colombia (255 points) and it

is pretty closed to the performance in Bogota (255 points).

On 2015, it happened the same situation with an overall score of 256 points for

Colombia and 265 points for the School, while Bogotá had 273 points, which gives us just

8 points difference with the Bogota’s results.

English Test

The students’ performance in English, currently, is measured in terms of level (A-, A1,

A2, B1 and B+) according with the Common European Framework.

These levels correspond to the following abilities for the students:

Table 3

Description of each English level

A- - The average student classified at this level does not exceed the less complex questions

of the test.

A1 - The student is able to understand and use familiar and common expressions and to use

very basic phrases aimed to satisfy immediate needs.

- The student is able to recognize the right language to ask for and give basic personal

information about home, belongings and known people.

- The student is able to interact in a simple way with the caller.

A2 -The student is able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to

areas of most immediate relevance (basic information, about himself and his family,

shopping, places of interest, professions, etc.).


-The student is able to identify simple terms about aspects of the past and his

environment, as well as issues related to his immediate needs.

- The student is able to understand simple text connected with familiar topics

B1 -The student is able to understand the main ideas of clear texts which use standardized

language if they are about known issues, whether in situations of work, study or leisure.

- The student is able to identify the description of experiences and events in past and

present; desires, aspirations , opinions and plans for the future

B+ -The average student classified in this level exceeds the more complex questions of the

test.

Note: Information retrieved from: Pruebas Saber - Ministerio de Educación Nacional de

Colombia. (2016). Mineducacion.gov.co

Having this in mind, it is necessary to clarify ICFES (The Colombian Institute for

Promotion of Higher Education) gives numerical equivalences to these levels, these, go

from 0 to 100 and they are understood to be ordered as it follows.

Table 4

Conversion from numerical score to English level.

Score Level

0 ≤ x < 43 A-

43 ≤ x < 53 A1

53 ≤ x < 63 A2

63 ≤ x < 83 B1


x ≥ 83 B+

Note: Information retrieved from: Pruebas Saber - Ministerio de Educación

Nacional de Colombia. (2016). Mineducacion.gov.co

The following table and correspondent graphic shows us the results of the school in

English test during two years, 2014 and 2015. The overall score of English test goes from a

minimum of 0 and a maximum of 100 points.

Table 5

San Pedro Claver Results on specific English test.

Year Colombia

score

Bogotá

score

Morning session

score

Afternoon session

score

San Pedro Claver School

score

2014 50 54 51 51 51

2015 51 55 51 49 50

Note: Data collected from: Sistema nacional de información de evaluación (2016)

www.icfesinteractivo.gov.co

Figure 3. San Pedro Claver Results on specific English test.

40

42

44

46

48

50

52

54

56

58

60

Colombia score Bogotá score Morning sessionscore

Afternoon sessionscore

San Pedro ClaverShool score

2014 2015


The results for English Test are rated from 0 to 100 points and in 2014 San Pedro Claver

School had 51 points, showing a little difference with Colombia’s (50 points) and Bogota’s

score (54 points).

In 2015, the score of the School was 50 points, having a difference of 5 points with the

Bogotá’s overall score (55) and the same Colombia’s score.

Addressing the sessions, the morning and afternoon sessions score are the same (51) in

year 2014, on the other hand, in 2015 the morning session (51) had a small difference of 2

points with the afternoon session (49).

State of the art

Studies about washback effect have been carried out over the last years. Important and

extensive studies like the monograph developed by Kathleen M. Bailey in 1999, called

“washback in language testing”, in which she makes a complete overview of the term and

its influence in the last years. Adding to that, she analyzes different studies in different

countries like for example, the one developed in Israel, by Shohamy in 1996. This study

was mainly focused on teachers’ changes. She observed several differences when the new

test of Arabic (ASL) was originally instituted: “teachers stopped teaching new material and

began to review; textbooks were replaced with worksheets identical to the previous year's

test; class activities became "test-like;. Promoting a complete focus on preparing the

students with mocks. "once teachers learnt that the results had no personal immediate effect

on them, they became relaxed and fearless, and thus the effect of the test decreased"

Shohamy (as cited in Bailey 1999, p. 22). That shows a difference between the preparing

period and the common classes, in this case the material was completely replaced according


to the students necessities when taking the test. This study demonstrates the influence the

test can have in the classroom and in teachers attitudes and perspectives about their task in

the class. In this study Shohamy concluded they were several changes in teachers

perspectives and actions during the preparation period.

On the other hand, and taking into account the students as participants, Hughes (1988)

in his study called “Introducing a needs-based test of English language proficiency into an

English- medium university in Turkey”. Was able to show that students' performance on

the Michigan Test was better after the implementation of a new exam. He also observed

subsequent changes in the English program like the implementation of summer courses.

This, caused a very great improvement over other years in the standard of English reached

in this university and the author concludes by highlighting that “potential backwash effect

should join validity and reliability in the balance against practicality” (p. 146). This

confirms washback is an important factor when talking about validity and reliability,

because learning process can improve starting from the implementation of a test by

motivating the students, provide accurate feedback about the process and the most

important, to go according with what students know about the content without excluding

any skill or competence.

To finish, there is a particular study, which was carried out in Colombia, called

“Washback on the ICFES exam: A case study of two schools in the Departamento del

Atlantico”, it was developed by Norma Barletta and Ofelia May in 2006. This study

attempts to report the impact of the ICFES test in the English practices in Colombia. It is

focused on describing the influence of washback effect in participants, processes and

products during a case study. As result, they got that just communicative competences


where developed during the period of preparation in the two schools” The study shows that

both teachers claim they are working towards the development of their students’

communicative competence” (p. 255). Adding to that, the orientation of both the test and the

class goals were quite limiting, so students’ level was very low. As a following

recommendation, they state that our country needs a more complete test, including

pragmatic competences, listening, and speaking skills. That, complemented the previous

findings getting to conclude washback effect can be positive when it is managed in the

corrects way and taking into account students context. But, it also can be harmful when we,

as teachers decide to put in practice just the skill or competence that is evaluated in the test

and do not realize the tests should be the result of learning the content for the subject and

not to train the students to answer the questions correctly.


Chapter III

Instructional Design

In this part of the proposal, it is described the approach, the objectives, the way the class

was developed, the instruments which were used. It also, will be explained the methodology

applied, the evaluation according to the pedagogical intervention, as well as the role of the

students, of the materials, of undergraduate teachers and researchers.

Theoretical foundation

The education theory which fits with the idea students’ perceptions and attitudes towards

their learning task are important and deserve to be studied is the Humanistic theory, mainly,

because “humanistic theory’s primary focuses are peoples’ needs, self-concept/esteem, and

values” Huitt, (as cited in Sa‘adi 2010). With this proposal attempts to give the students the

opportunity to express their perceptions and opinions towards their own learning task

taking into account the particular situation of presenting a test. This theory in an

educational point of view and it has five basic objectives described by Gage & Berliner

(1991):

1. To promote positive self-direction and independence (development of the regulatory

system)

2. To develop the ability to take responsibility for what is learned (regulatory and affective

systems)

3. To develop creativity (divergent thinking aspect of cognition)


4. To promote curiosity (exploratory behavior, a function of imbalance or dissonance in any

of the systems)

5. To promote interest in the arts (primarily to develop the affective/emotional system).

This learning theory is appropriate because this proposal looks for the perceptions and

attitudes the students take through their language task. As it is mentioned by Hughes in the

literature review, the principal way to know the perceptions of people is through language.

In this case, a survey and at the same time it was given to them the opportunity to be more

aware about their learning task and to share their point of view as students.

Humanism also believe that it is necessary to study the person as a whole, especially as

an individual grows and develops over the lifespan. This, follows the idea the students can

also fell anxious about the test, they can fell their parents, teachers and classmates pressure

to have a good score, which would change their actions and behavior at the moment of

preparing to the test. That is why to develop this proposal is important to have into account

all those factors and to understand the student as a whole and not just as a test-taker.

According to the information above, the theory of learning that was addressed was the

Social cognitive Theory; this explains the psychosocial functioning in terms of triadic

reciprocal causation. In this causal model behavior, cognitive and other personal factors and

environmental events all operate as interacting determinants that influence each other

bidirectionally Bandura (as cited in Bandura A. 1988), this theory fits with the idea that

students’ perceptions are important at the moment of facing the learning process as well as

their experiences and attitudes. It is possible to mention the environmental events are

represented by the Test and the important conditions in which this is presented.


This theory is divided in three factors, which are also important in this proposal. First,

personal factors, which were reflected in the way the students base their perceptions taking

into account previous experiences and the way they interpret the world. Second, the

environmental influences, these influences can be determinate by the test itself and of

course the effect it has in the students’ life, it is possible to say another environmental

influence are the different actions the teachers and the institution do for the preparation to

the test. The third factor is the behavior, which is commonly affected in these situations

because the students change their way to do things looking for a good score in the test.

The language theory that was addressed was the Social interactionism, this theory is

widely supported by the social theories of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. This

author “assumes that language acquisition is influenced by the interaction of a number of

factors – physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social” Cooter & Reutzel (as cited in Buitrago

2012, p. 1). This theory supports the idea that social interaction plays a fundamental role in

the process of learning a language, the goal of the language is to communicate ideas, to

interact with others so this theory considers the experience of interacting as the main factor.

Taking into account perceptions determine people’s actions as interpretations of reality,

they affect the interaction and at the same time perceptions are affected by previous

experiences.

This theory is addressed in this research proposal because students need all those

different experiences presenting tests to build the new ones towards the national test Saber

11°and to determine the different attitudes and behaviors the students can take facing the

washback effect, which consist in an influence of a test in the participants, processes and

products.


The approach used is the task based approach, the concept “task” can be defined as “An

activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding

language” Richards (as cited in Nunan D. 2004, p. 4). Using these tasks, some principles

and practice have been strengthen. For example: The provision of opportunities to learners

to focus not only on language but in the learning process itself, linking the use of the

language in the class with the use in the real world, an enhancement of the learner´s own

personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.

The classes were developed based on task based approach, because even when the Saber

11° test is not focused on developing another skill than reading, the test presents situations

of daily life and it even uses stories and graphics, which use real language. Adding to that,

it evaluates different competences, which involve the linguistic, pragmatic and

sociolinguistic, these, are directly related to the factors, which interact with each other in

the social interactionism and with the goal of the language, which is to communicate ideas.

It was decided to use this approach in particular, as the institution asks for an extensive

exposure to the style of questions and context the test usually manages.

Table 6

Theoretical Foundation

Education theory Learning theory Language theory Approach

Humanistic Social cognitive Social interactionism Task Based

The outcomes expected for this proposal are clearly to achieve the identification and

analysis of the perceptions and attitudes of the students when are affected by the washback

effect. For this purpose, two applications of a survey were implemented in two different


stages of the research to 34 eleventh graders, who are taking the test in the next months.

Taking into account this, it is expected the students to express their ideas and

interpretations about their learning task, their perceptions about the importance of the test

and how they fell about it, at the moment of taking the common classes and at the moment

they are preparing for the test.

During all the session, the role as researchers is to observe and use field notes as

instrument to collect the data about the attitudes the students take facing the preparation

classes for the test.

Pedagogical instructional objectives:

● To reinforce the reading skill, which is needed to have a good score in the Saber 11°

test.

● To improve reading comprehension in the students.

Implementation

The implementation for this research was divided in two stages.

First stage.

The first stage consisted in common classes, students were exposed to the classes they

were used to take for a period of two months, which meant seven sessions. These classes

were based on grammar topics and developed with different didactic activities.

The topics, which were addressed in this stage, were:

-Passive voice

-Conditionals (zero, first, second and third)


-Cognitive test

The materials, which were used to develop these classes, were:

Table 7

First stage: Sessions/Materials/Skill/Competences

Sessions Material Skill/Competence

Session # 1 (15th

February):

Passive voice.

1. Worksheet (rewriting in passive

voice)

2. Worksheet (Reading control –

Robinson Crusoe)

Writing

Reading.

Linguistic

Sociolinguistic

Pragmatic

Session # 2 (22th

February):

Passive voice.

1. Game # 1 (Filling the gaps and

create sentences)

Reading

Speaking

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Session # 3 (29th

February):

Passive voice

games.

1. Game # 2 (To put sentences

from active to passive voice)

2. Worksheet (Complete

sentences)

Reading

Speaking

Linguistic

Session # 4 (7th

March):

Passive voice –

Review.

1. Video (Scene from Ratatouille

movie)

2. Worksheet (to rewrite

sentences according to the

situations watched in the video)

Writing

Listening

Linguistic

Sociolinguistic

Pragmatic


Session # 5 (14th

March):

Zero and 1st

Conditionals.

1. Video (Scenes from Hercules

movie)

2. Game (Bingo)

3. Worksheet (Complete and

match sentences)

Writing

Listening

Reading

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Session # 6 (28th

March):

2nd and 3rd

Conditionals.

1. Worksheet (Complete some

sentences and create another

ones)

Reading

Writing

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Session # 7 (8th

April):

Cognitive test.

1. Cognitive test (Guides about all

the topics worked until this

session)

Reading

Writing

Linguistic

Pragmatic

At the end of this stage, more specifically in the session number 6, it was implemented

the first application of the survey for it to report the students’ perceptions and attitudes until

this point in the classes.

Second stage.

The second stage consisted in a series of four sessions in which the students were

exposed to the preparation to the test for about a month and a half. The students were

informed about the structure of the test, the kind of questions and the correct use of the

answer sheets. They used new materials and different ways of developing the class.

In these four sessions the principal topics were:


- Reading strategies (inferring)

- Reading strategies (Predicting, rereading and restating)

- Mock (See annex 12)

- Mock (See annex 11)

Table 8

Second stage: Sessions/Materials/Skill/Competences

Session Material Skill/Competence

Session # 8 (11th

April):

Reading strategies –

Inferring.

1. Cards (To infer situations)

2. Trailer and short animated

film (The Paperman), this

was replaced by a Saber 11°

test Mock (To use as an

example)

3. Worksheet (Questions from

previous Saber 11° test)

Writing

Listening

Reading

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Sociolinguistic

Session # 9 (18th

April):

Reading strategies –

Predicting,

Rereading and

restating.

1. Tales (four short tales)

2. Worksheet (Application of

the reading strategies)

Reading

Writing

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Sociolinguistic


Session # 10 (2nd

May):

Saber 11° Test.

1. Mock (Questions examples

from Saber 11° test 2015-I)

(See annex 12)

Writing

Reading

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Sociolinguistic

Session # 11 (16th

May):

Saber 11° Test.

1. Mock (Questions examples

from Saber 11° test 2014)

(See annex 11)

Writing

Reading

Linguistic

Pragmatic

Sociolinguistic

In the last session the second application of the survey was done. Adding to that, it was

implemented a self-assessment with the purpose of letting the students express their ideas

about the activities and the preparation for the test.

Teacher’s Role

The teachers’ role was based, in first place, on the commitment with the sessions as

teachers and on the development of the program as it is established.

According to washback, language teachers are also mentioned to have a role as

participants, and to be in the front-line of the processes related to instruction. They are even

mentioned like the most important individuals because of their direct relation not just with

the students, but also with instruction, resourses and curriculum.

The teacher’s participation in the classroom indicates they are also affected by washback,

and even more important, it affects their way to work.

According to Alderson and Wall’s (cited in Bailey 1999) hypothesis, a test will influence

teaching in different levels:


3. A test will influence what teachers teach; and

4. A test will influence how teachers teach.

7. A test will influence the rate and sequence of teaching; and

9. A test will influence the degree and depth of teaching; and

11. A test will influence attitudes to the content, method, etc. of teaching and learning.

Teachers, as principal actors in the students’ learning process, are affected in the way tests

influence, what they do and how they develop their activities. In fact, they should change

their instruction to act according with the requirements of the curriculum and the test

preparation; in this case, the teacher had to change his normal activities to accomplish the

demands of the curriculum. These, included a whole term working on just topics related to

the Saber test 11°, the change will be shown below:

First term topics.

Figure 4. San Pedro Claver School Curriculum. First term. 2016


Second Term topics.

Figure 5. San Pedro Claver School Curriculum. Second term. 2016

Evidently, there is a clear difference between the role of the teacher in 1st term with the

2nd one. The first one is focused on general grammar topics like active voice or conditionals,

but, in the second one the teacher becomes in a trainer as it can be inferred from Hughes

(cited in Bailey 1999). “This situation necessitated a number of changes in the program that

included the introduction of a new syllabus and new textbooks, in addition to teacher training

efforts” (p. 19)

A trainer is defined to be “A person who teaches skills to people or animals and prepares

them for a job, activity or Sport” (2016). This, is the activity which were requested to do in

this term, to give instruction for preparing the students to answer the test, to teach the kind

of questions which were going to appear in the test and to reinforce the skills they needed to

get good scores.


Adding to that, the teacher gave the students the opportunity to express their ideas,

opinions and interpretations towards the whole process, then, the role was related to observe

and to look for the students’ attitudes and perceptions towards their learning task through a

series of surveys and observations.

The most noticeable way in which the students can be aware about the preparation for the

test is the change in the material. In this case, the teacher also develops his role as material

developer and provider, even though, some of the simulators are examples of previous tests

questions, the teacher had to design different worksheets and guides with this questions style

for the students to familiarize with them.

Students’ role

The students’ role was based on their perceptions and opinions towards their language

learning process, it means, they did a self- assessment about their own learning process and

the stage in which they are preparing for the test. The idea of washback describes the students

as part of the group of participants who are affected by the tests, this research proposal places

the students as individuals who are asked to express their ideas, interpretations of the situation

and the changes they experiment.

According to washback, students are participants of the process, and test-takers, Bachman

and Palmer (1996), highlight that test-takers themselves can be affected by

1) The experience of taking and, in some cases, of preparing for the test.

2) The feedback they receive about their performance on the test.

3) The decisions that may be made about them on the basis of the test.


Considering this, it is possible to say, students acted like assessors of their own process

by realizing about the changes and different factors in their environment at the moment of

facing a test, and they reflected about the standardized test itself and its importance.

Material’s Role

The role of the material was based on the same principle of washback effect. All dynamics

change at the moment of facing a test, and of course, the materials which are used, are

different from the usual ones. The materials used were mostly simulators of the test,

workshops imitating the style of the test and authentic material which also can be found in

some cases for the students to read. The role of this material is to act as an imitation of the

test and in that way to prepare the students to take the real one.

There are numerous materials to simulate the test’s questions, Pierce points out that “such

materials are indirect evidence of washback.” (Pierce, 1992, p. 14). Mainly, because they act

like a preparation for the test and in that way, they come to replace common or more used

materials in the classes, which do not have this specific purpose.

Otherwise, teaching materials, which are designed to have the role of preparing the

students for the public examinations are discussed to be "little more than clones of past exam

papers" (Andrews, S., & Fullilove, J. as cited in Bailey 1999, p. 31). Like in this case, the

simulators which were used in the Sessions 10 and 11. Adding to that, some questions

extracted from documents like “Martes de prueba”, which are part of an evaluation system

that contributes to strengthening the academic level of students through the application and

feedback of test designed under the approved structure of the test.


The educational result is that students "tend to spend long hours memorizing model

answers, rather than actually learning how to answer similar questions" (Andrews, S., &

Fullilove, J. as cited in Bailey 1999, p. 31)


Chapter IV

Research Design

Due to the complex characteristics of perceptions and attitudes, this research project is

designed to use both quantitative and qualitative research methods to make clearer the data

for the analysis. According to Patton (2002), “each method has differing advantages and

disadvantages. A quantitative research method can obtain broad, generalizable findings

while a qualitative research method can yield in-depth, detailed information” (p. 172).

Therefore, using a combination of both methods allows for triangulation of the data to

achieve accurate and reliable findings.

A mixed research is also defined by (Creswell, 2014, p. 119) as “a research design (or

methodology) in which the researcher collects, analyzes, and mixes (integrates or connects)

both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study.”, in this research project, because of

the complexity of the unit of study “perceptions” it is more appropriate to have two

different kinds of data.

Different methods such as surveys, classroom observations, taking notes and a short

self-assessment were employed to achieve the research’s objectives in depth. This, consist

in analyze eventual variations in students’ perceptions and attitudes when preparing for

Saber 11° test. While surveys give a general picture as to how students react in the classes

and their perceptions about their learning task, classroom observations tend to provide

detailed information about what students actually do in the classroom and their attitudes

facing the changes the test prorogues. These methods complement each other in this type

of research.


Type of Research

The type of research is the Case study, in which “the researcher explores in depth a

program, an event, an activity, a process, or one or more individuals. The case(s) are

bounded by time and activity, and researchers collect detailed information using a variety

of data collection procedures over a sustained period of time” Stake (as cited in Creswell J.

2014, p. 12). In this case, as the exploration is about the students’ perceptions and the

observations are about their process, it was decided to carry out a case study mainly

because “It focuses on individual actors or groups of actors, and seeks to understand their

perceptions of events” (Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. 2007, p. 290). Adding to

that, it was worked with the cause and effect phenomenon because it attempted to observe

and analyze in depth what happens when students are exposed to different changes because

of the influence of tests. This cause and effect phenomenon is defined as case study by

(Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. 2007), “Case studies can establish cause and effect,

indeed one of their strengths is that they observe effects in real contexts, recognizing that

context is a powerful determinant of both causes and effects” (p. 289).

Additionally, this research project is interpretative, according to Merriam who

differences three kind of case studies, descriptive, interpretative and evaluative, defining

interpretative one as “developing conceptual categories inductively in order to examine

initial assumptions” Merriam (as cited in Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. 2007, p.

291). This is the process which is held at the moment of getting the different categories,

which, were defined inductively and then, supported with specific data and specific

situations.


The Research Context and the Participants

This research proposal was applied in a public school in Bogotá. This school is located

in Kennedy and has two branches. Part of the institution’s mission is to educate integral

human beings adding to that the development of communicative skills, which is one of the

emphasis. The school also has a remarkable commitment with environment proposing

different activities to make aware the students and the people who live in the surroundings

about the importance of environmental issues. The group that was participant in this

research is an eleventh grade which is composed by 32 students, they study in the morning

time and have 4 hours of English class per week in their schedule, these hours are carried

out normally on Mondays and Fridays. Finally, the classrooms in which the data collection

was done had some multimedia resources and were well equipped with all the basic tools to

develop the class.

Instruments for Data Collection

For this research project, there were used three instruments for the collection of the

data. The first one was an initial survey, which would help to find out the students’

perceptions towards their learning task, during the first stage of the research, and the second

application was at the end of the sessions and it gave account of the perceptions of the

students during the preparation sessions to the saber 11° test. The second instrument was a

daily report by the researcher and it consisted in a series of field notes. Finally, the third

instrument was a self-assessment applied at the end of the sessions and after developing the

mocks and specific activities of preparation.


Surveys

The first data collection instrument is the survey; surveys are defined as tools for

“Asking participants about their opinions and behaviors through a short questionnaire. The

information you collect is not first-hand (like an observation) but rather “self-reported”

data, or data collected in an indirect manner.” (Driscoll, 2011, p. 3). This instrument was

used mainly because it allowed the inquiry about the students’ perceptions. It is also

important to highlight this is the chosen instrument because it is an important tool to

explore more about the students behavior and to get to the “why” of their attitudes and

perceptions about their learning task. These, are helpful to get an overview of the changes

the participants of the class suffer when they are facing the preparation of a test and in that

way to identify the washback effect.

The data was collected through some close questions, multiple choice questions and

some open questions, as it is indicated by Babbie, “Surveys include cross-sectional and

longitudinal studies using questionnaires or structured interviews for data collection, with

the intent of generalizing from a sample to a population” (Babbie, as cited in Creswell

2014, p. 16). For this research there were implemented two questionnaires, each, with a set

of thirteen questions, these were implemented in two different moments of the process with

the purpose of showing the changes during a period of time. It is important to differentiate

the two stages, the first stage was based on the common classes the students already knew

and the second one, was based on the preparation for the test, focusing the attention on

reading comprehension and general knowledge of it. This change in the process was the


one, which cased different results even when the survey was the same. The questions

presented in the survey were:

• How do you consider the explanations in the English class?

• How do you consider the English class?

• How do you consider the topics, which are addressed in the class?

• What is your perception about the hourly intensity of the class?

• Write down the first word that comes to your mind when thinking about: English

class, English language, Saber 11° tests, Saber 11° mocks, homework, practice,

material, topics, vocabulary, communicative ability, assessment and score.

• What is your perception about assessment?

• How does it feel to know you will be evaluated?

• Do you practice autonomously?

• How often?

• What tasks do you do practice when you practice autonomously?

• Do you think that the materials used in class are the correct ones?

• What do you think about the mocks, reading strategies and the other special

activities focused on developing the saber 11° test?

• Do you think that the saber 11° test results are going to have an influence in your

grades?

• What do you think are the skills you should reinforce in 11th grade?


Field notes

The Second instrument is a set of Field notes defined by Burns (1999) as written

descriptions that give account of events. He mentions that there are two different moments

for writing field notes. The first one is called by the author “in the midst”, in this moment

the teacher-research writes down notes or key points about what he or she considered

relevant for the research while the class is going on. The second one is called “after the

fact”, after having finished the class teacher research takes time for writing down his

observation”, teachers are constantly observing the environment and planning the next

actions in class, according to that, this research focused on the students’ behavior in the

class. First, like in the Burns description by taking notes about the most relevant situations

and then writing in detail the facts to have a starting point to compare them with the

perceptions and attitudes identified with the first instrument, the surveys.

“Keeping field notes is a way of reporting observations, reflections, and reactions to

classroom problems” Hopkins (1995). Having in mind, this research does not look for

specific problems but for the change in the students’ perceptions and attitudes when they

are preparing to an important test. It was observed in detail the different behaviors and

comments they do towards the test, which is changing gradually while the date of the test

arrives and it becomes the main topic to be discussed in class.

Hopkins also mentions, “field notes can be of a number of different types, they can be

“issue-oriented” in so far as the observations focus on a particular aspect of one’s teaching

or classroom behavior and constitute an ongoing record. Besides, they can reflect general

impressions of the classroom, its climate or incidental events” Hopkins (1995, p. 9). In this


case, the field notes, gave account of the behavior and the changes in the attitudes and

perceptions were both types. “Issue- oriented” because this research attempts to look for

specific changes and pre- established perceptions and attitudes the students may take, and at

the same time it looks for the general impression of the classroom at the moment of

preparing for an standardized test.

Self-assessment

Self-assessment in students is commonly referred to grade themselves in a checklists

but it is a different and more complex process. Self – assessment is “defined as a

process by which students 1) monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and

behavior when learning and 2) identify strategies that improve their understanding and

skills.” (McMillan & Hearn 2008, p. 40), according to this, the self-assessment is

developed when students are aware of their own learning process and of the skills they

need to reinforce to improve them. In this project, the self-assessment was done to

inquire about the students’ perceptions towards their own performance when

developing the mocks, and how they thought they could improve it. This meant they

were already aware of their learning task and more important, they had the opportunity

to express, under their own judgment, what they thought it would be better for them to

improve and how did they performed until that moment.

The questions, which composed this self - assessment were:

▪ How did you feel doing this Saber 11° mocks?

▪ How would you evaluate your performance developing these activities?


▪ Do you think you achieved the goals that this activity wanted to evaluate?

▪ What aspects do you think you were successful?

▪ What aspects did you had difficulties?

▪ How do you think you can overcome these difficulties?


Chapter V

Data Analysis

In this chapter, it is given an account of the data collection organization followed in this

study, as well as the explanation of how this data was managed and reported.

Aiming to get to the purpose of this study, it was decided to do the data collection

process by using two different techniques surveys and field notes, adding to that, it was

implemented a self-assessment at the end of the sessions.

To start with the data analysis, it is going to be presented the surveys’, the field notes’

and self-assessments’ results separately.

Surveys

The first technique was the application of a survey to thirty - two students; this survey

contained thirteen questions, which were designed to inquire about the perceptions and

attitudes of the students in the two different stages of the research. It was implemented two

times; the first application was done on 29th March 2016 and the second one, on 16th May

2016.

The principal purpose of these surveys was to understand and analyze the perceptions

and attitudes of the students at the moment they were exposed to a common class and

compare them with the moment in which the focus of the classes changed to the preparation

for the test.

The first eight questions, which are going to be exposed in this section, were designed

to inquire about the class in general terms, explanations, topics, skills, hourly intensity and

materials.


The following graphics correspond to the questions number 1, 2 3, 4, 10, 11, 12 and 13 as

they appear in the survey and they are listed respectively below:

▪ How do you consider the explanations in the English class?


▪ How do you consider the English class?


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Clear Unclear Not clear at all

First Survey 26 6 0

Second Survey 23 9 0

First Survey Second Survey

05

1015202530

Veryinteresting

Interesting Notinteresting

Boring

First Survey 2 30 0 0

Second Survey 2 27 3 0



▪ How do you consider the topics, which are addressed in the class? (This question

has three different answers, which corresponds to the following three different

graphics)

Figure 8. Question # 3A.


05

101520253035

Useful A little useful Unhelpful

First Survey 28 4 0



0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Easy Intermediate Difficult

First Survey 3 29 0




Figure 10. Question # 3C

▪ What is your perception about the hourly intensity of the class?


0

5

10

15

20

25

Not enough Enough Too much

First Survey 14 18 0



0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Interesting Not interesting Boring

First Survey 25 7 0




▪ Do you think that the materials used in class are the correct ones?


▪ What do you think about the mocks, reading strategies and the other special

activities focused on developing the saber 11° test?


0

10

20

30

40

Yes No

First survey 31 1

Second survey 32 0

First survey Second survey

05

101520253035

Useful A little useful Unhelpful

First Survey 31 1 0




▪ Do you think that the saber 11° test results are going to have an influence in your

grades?


▪ What do you think are the skills you should reinforce in 11th grade?


05

101520253035

Reading Writing Speaking Listening




0

10

20

30

Yes No

First Survey 26 6

Second Survey 22 10



The students were asked to range the classes from clear to not clear at all. They

considered to have less clear classes in the second application of the surveys, when they

were preparing for the test. It is possible to think the students were confused when

receiving the explanations about reading strategies, as they were not used to work with oral

instructions, but to solve the worksheets by themselves, on the other hand, students were

used to ask questions when developing the worksheets, this situation changed at the

moment of developing the mocks.

The next question was focused on the class itself, and it inquired about if it was

interesting or not. The options went from, very interesting to boring. The results showed us

a change in the perspective of a few students from interesting to not interesting, here, it can

be reinforced the fact that to work with complete texts and mocks of the test resulted in a

more tedious activity to do, than the last activities which involved games and workshops to

complete.

The following question attempted to go deeper in their opinions and asked about the

topics, which were addressed in the class. This question was divided into three categories:

from easy to difficult, interesting to boring and from useful to unhelpful.

The results showed that the students considered they were working in an intermediate

level and the variation in the two applications did not change much, in the second category,

the students thought the topics were more interesting than in the previous sessions. One

could conclude than even when in the second stage of the research, students thought classes

were less interesting, the topics by themselves were more interesting because of the focus

and importance they give to the test. In the third category the students considered the topics


were more useful than in the first applications, this, supports the idea that their perceptions

changed because of the importance they give to the test and the preparation for it.

The fourth question was focused on the hourly intensity of the class in which the

majority thought the hours were enough in both applications, but also an important number

thought they were not enough, here, it is important to have into account the students had

four hours per week of English classes.

The next question referred to the skills the students thought they were going to need at

the moment of solving the Saber 11° test. In the first application the results indicated it was

reading, followed by speaking. Additionally, it was possible to notice the improvement in

the knowledge of the test having as a result for the most used skill “reading”, which is the

only skill used in this test.

About the materials, the questions, they inquired about the relevance of the material,

which was used in the two stages of the research. The results showed that the students

considered the material was the appropriate in the two applications, but this number

increased in the second one, when the students were using the mocks and preparation

activities to Saber 11° test. On the other hand, the students considered, in both applications,

that the mocks and activities to reinforce the Saber 11° test knowledge were useful.

The next part of the survey, consisted on asking the students to write down the words

that came to their minds when they read a set of words, the results were the following:

English class: The attitudes of the students towards the English class were mainly

positive, they thought it was interesting and good, otherwise, some of them relation it with

opportunities and travels, some others highlighted some materials and vocabulary which are

commonly used in this class.


English language: As in “English class”, the students thought it was interesting and

answered with positive words, some others related it to another countries and opportunities.

In the second application there was and incensement of the students who related the word

to travels and foreigners.

Saber 11° test: The majority of the students did relate these words with “university”

and “important” for their future, some others related the test to positive things like interest

and study, to finish some students expressed words like, nervous or fear, in the second

applications this situation increased. From the increment, it was seen that, students, when

exposed to the mocks and a more direct preparation than with the normal classes, feel

closer to the reality they are going to face a test and get more nervous and worried about it.

Saber 11° Mocks: The majority of the students related the mocks to preparation and

positive words and some others think they are difficult and they feel nervous. In the second

application of the survey the results are the same except for a response which clearly said

“it do not explain about correct topics”, which means there are also students who do value

more the normal topics explanations than the preparation for the test by practicing with

mocks.

Homework: The majority of the students agreed homework is boring and represent

extra work for them, while some other mentioned different characteristics and different

ways of doing homework. In the second application students added words related to

commitment and responsibility.

Practice: The majority of the students relate this word with positive words like,

improvement, learning, and interesting, while some other mentioned activities they can do

to practice the language. In the second application, the results were very similar.


Material: some of the students related this word to different materials they have used,

and some others related it as something positive to words like help or necessary, in the

second application of the survey the results were very similar.

Topics: In this case, the majority of the students answered with words related to some

topics like for example, vocabulary, verbs and explanations, some other said positive things

about it like leaning, useful and interesting. There was no variation in the second

application.

Vocabulary: Students related vocabulary, mainly to the word “word”, some others

mentioned positive words like fun and excellent and some others considered it confusing

and difficult. In the second application, more students related this word to positive

expressions like improving and important.

Communicative ability: Students related this word to talking and practicing which they

consider is good, while, in the second application words like learning, important and

knowing appeared.

Assessment: Students related the word assessment to their feelings of fear and they said

assessment were boring, some other students thought it was related to grades and scores

and some others with processes like reinforcing and studying in both applications.

Score: The students expressed “score” was related to bad feelings as fear and words

related to bad results, opposite to that, some of them wrote it was important and good. In

the second application, more students thought about be better and the hope and benefits of

having a good score, while some students stayed in the idea it represented pressure for

them.


The next two questions, correspond to the numerals 6 and 7 listed in the survey, they

were oriented to inquire about the perceptions of the students about assessment.

▪ What is your perception about assessment?


▪ How does it feel to know you will be evaluated?


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Necessary A little necessary Unnecessary

First Survey 25 7 0



0

5

10

15

20

Nervous Anxious Calmed I do not care





The results of these two questions showed that more students thought assessment were

necessary in the second application, this result, suggested that, as the students were working

on a closer look to what the test was, they have learned more about the topic and they

considered it more important.

In addition, the results showed that more students were nervous about being evaluated in

the second application of the survey, as it has been said before, it might be the result of

making the students aware to the reality they were going to face an important test soon and

that the preparation for it had begun. Adding to that, the majority of students thought the

score in the Saber 11° tests was going to have an impact in their school’s grades in both

applications.

The next question consisted in the numeral 8 as listed in the survey and it inquired about

autonomous learning. In order to illustrate the frequency of this autonomous learning there

was added an extra graphic for this questions as is showed below:

• Do you practice autonomously?

}


0

5

10

15

20

Yes No

First Survey 12 20

second survey 19 13

First Survey second survey


• How often?


The results of the two applications showed that there was an incensement of the number

of students, who practiced autonomously in the second application of the survey. This may

suggest students were preparing for the test by themselves. The second question inquired

about the material they used and it confirms the previous idea. In the answers of this

question, it was clear that the majority preferred the use of electronic devices and the

internet as a research tool (video games, TV, music, computer), adding to that in the second

application, some students affirmed to be practicing with virtual mocks and preparing

autonomously for the test. However, few of the students tried to practice with traditional

options, such as books or dictionaries. In the second survey, the preference for technology

to their English practice continued.

To validate the perceptions about the activities discussed above, students were asked to

express personal commentaries about their performance in a self-assessment, this one was

implemented at the same time of the second survey in the last session.

0

5

10

15

20

Never Sometimes Always

First survey 0 10 2


First survey Second Survey


Self-assessment

This self - assessment was done after the two mocks and before finishing all sessions and it

was composed by 6 opened-questions. It started by asking to the students how did they felt

developing the Saber test 11° mocks, for this question the majority of the students said to feel

good because it helped them, and another significant group, said they felt nervous or anxious.

Additionally, they were asked about their performance to what they answered they did good in

the mocks because they were practicing and they had the chance to ask to the teacher and some

others, thought their performance was intermediate and that they needed to practice.

The next question was about the activities’ goals, to what, the majority of the students said

they had been accomplished, because it was useful and it helped them to reinforce reading

comprehension. Opposite to that, some other students answered negatively, because they did

not know the goals or just because they thought they did not do well in the score of the mocks.

The following next questions was about the aspects in which the students thought they were

successful, the majority of them, answered that it was in reading, some others answered that it

has been in writing, tenses identification, and vocabulary.

The final question for the self-assessment explored about the students’ difficulties

developing the mocks to what the majority of the students said with texts, vocabulary and

comprehension.

It is possible to say, they feel nervous about the mocks, but at the same time, they think they

are useful and they help them to improve and have a better performance in the real test. The

students also considered they had a good performance in the mocks because they were able to

correct and ask to the teacher about their mistakes in the feedback, they took this experience as


positive for their process. The students who thought they did not have a good performance

realized there was a lot work to do before addressing the real test.

Additionally, it is possible to say students realized the saber 11° test deals mainly with

reading skill, they answered they had been successful at readings in the mocks, but, at the same

time, they mentioned it as a difficulty, which in this case, indicates they know they are

important but still need to reinforce the reading comprehension.

Field Notes

The field notes were reported from 15th February 2016 to 16th May 2016, for 11 sessions

mostly on Mondays, the following chart will show the principal observations and relevant

events ordered by categories.

Table 9

Field notes

Category First Stage Second Stage

English Class

Excerpt taken from field note #

2: “Before finishing, I asked

them if they liked the class,

they answered a total yes, and

that it had been fun and we

should repeat it.”

From field note # 8: “The

students participated and

together guessed all the places.”

Short excerpt taken from field

note # 8: “I explained to the

students the structure of the

Saber 11° test and the kind of


Short extract from field note

#4: “Before finishing the class,

I asked them if they liked the

class, some of them raised their

hands and said they did not

want to work with videos

because they did not

understand to the characters

and they suggest we should

work less with multimedia

tools.”

The next excerpt was taken

from field note # 5: “I asked if

they had any question because

I consider it is not an easy

topic but they did not asked

anything so we continued.”

Fragment taken from field note

# 5: “Before I left, I asked

about the class and they told

questions they were going to

find in the English test. The

students asked a lot of questions

about the answer sheets, the time

and the importance of the test,

they expressed they wanted to

improve and they considered the

test to be important for their

future.”

Statement taken from field note

# 10: “The students were

organizing for taking the mock

they were very serious and

commenting they hope it would

be easy.”


me it was fine and that it was

all clear.”

From field note # 6: “I asked if

there was any question and

they did not raised their hands,

they thought it was all clear.”

Taken from field note # 2:

“The students mentioned they

liked the game and it was fun,

they expressed they had to win

next class.”

Short piece of text taken from

field note # 2: “The students

looked so excited about the

game, they participated

actively and wanted to win,

they liked that kind of games in

which they have to compete. “



2: “The activity was a bingo in

which they had to organize by

groups of four people, and try

to match the conditional clause

with the results in different

examples, during the game the

students looked motivated to

win and participated actively

some of them were changing

sits because they wanted to

play with their friends but I

said it was not allowed, some

of them followed the

instruction”

Assessment

From field note # 7: “The

students expressed to be

nervous because this was the

second-chance examination to

improve their grades.”

Short extract taken from field

note # 10: “Some of them asked

if they were going to have, the

opportunity to ask about

vocabulary, I answered it was

not possible and we continued.”


It was taken from field note #

7: “Even when they had

guides, and explanations in the

photocopies they asked many

questions.”


4: “We did a little quiz about

this topic because it was the

last class, the students were

talking with each other so I

told them not to do that. Some

students were cheating so I

decided to cancel their quiz,

they looked angry.”

Statement picked up from field

note # 10: “The students took

the activity very serious and

followed the instructions.”


field note # 11: “They asked if

the test was going to be more

difficult than the last one, I

answered it was the same

difficulty.”

Short extract taken from field

note # 11: “This time the

students brought dictionaries and

asked if it was possible to use

them. We answered no, because

we wanted it to be as similar to

the real test that it could be.”


The next short extract was taken

from field note # 11: “The

students followed the

instructions and looked worried

about the results of the test.”

Autonomous

Learning

Excerpt picked up from field

note # 9: “One of the students

asked me about a phrase of a

song, she was trying to

translate by herself while his

classmates finished the

activity.”

Statement taken from field note

# 4: “One student asked about

a word she said, she had been

seeing on social media, “bae””

Taken from field note # 8:

“While we were developing the

activity two students asked to

me about another activity the

teacher had told them to do but

they did not understand so they

looked for the topic on the

Internet but they still did not

understand so they asked for me

to explained to them, I did it and

we continue.”

Short fragment taken from

field note # 2: “The students

mentioned they liked the game


Materials

and it was fun, they expressed

they had to win next class.”

The next excerpt was taken

from field note # 2: “The

students were so motivated

about the game, they

participated actively and

wanted to win, they liked that

kind of games in which they

have to compete.”


field note # 3: “They started to

celebrate and say they are

going to have their revenge and

it was their opportunity to

win.”

Short extract from field note #

4: “There was an inconvenient

with one of the questions


because there was a mistake in

one of the answers, so, the

students complained about it.

I put the video first, during the

video the students complained

they did not understand

anything about it so I put it two

times more and helped them

with the workshop.”


2: “The activity was a bingo in

which they had to organize by

groups of four people, and try

to match the conditional clause

with the results in different

examples”

Discussion

The central question of this study is whether the English test Saber 11° has had any

washback effect in students’ perceptions and attitudes. To start with the analysis, it is

important to indicate, Hughes (as cited in Bailey, 1999), indicates, “The nature of a test

may first affect the perceptions and attitudes of the participants towards their teaching and


learning tasks” (p. 10), as the focus of this research are the students, the research attempted

to explain their perceptions and attitudes about their learning task. For that purpose, the

results were divided into three categories, constituting and explaining the students’ learning

task.

English class

The first one, “English class” reunites a series of aspects like hourly intensity, materials,

explanations, topics and the class in general terms. This category is defined as the actions

and activities the students take into the classroom in their normal schedule (4 hours per

week) here, it was possible to observe behavior and reactions of the students towards the

changes in their English classes and adding, to that they expressed themselves towards the

topic. Students did express to have good perceptions about the class, claiming, it was

important and interesting in both stages of the research. About the topics, which were

worked, the students did change their perspectives, indicating the preparation for the test

(second stage) was more interesting, this can be supported by the idea students think Saber

11° test is important for their future and seemed to be very interested on the topic as it is

shown following:

“I explained to the students the structure of the Saber 11° test and the kind of questions

they were going to find in the English test. The students asked a lot of questions about the

answer sheets, the time and the importance of the test, they expressed they wanted to

improve and they considered the test to be important for their future” taken from Field note

# 8.

Students seemed to be very interested, and that can be seen also in some of the words

they related to “Saber 11° test”, these, indicate students did relate these words with


“university” and “important” for their future, which is also coherent with the fact more

students thought the topics of the classes in the second stage were more useful.

These reactions were expected in the way Taylor (2005), indicated “Test and tests

results have a significant impact on the career or life chances of individual test takers (e.g.

access to education/ employment opportunities)” (p. 154), which are the relations the

students do among the test and their future success. Adding to that, it is important to

highlight their beliefs towards the English language, which supports their idea, that to know

English is related to traveling, to get a good job and being successful in life.

The students’ attitudes towards the preparation classes were also so different based on

the idea the test is important, while in the first stage of the research they showed to be very

excited about the games and different activities:

“The students looked so excited about the game, they participated actively and wanted

to win…They started to celebrate and say they were going to have their revenge and it was

their opportunity to win” Excerpt taken from field note # 2.

These reactions and behavior contrast to their change at the moment of developing the

activities focused on the test:

“The students were organizing for taking the mock they were very serious and

commenting they hoped it would be easy” Taken from field note # 10.

This, illustrates the Alderson & Wall (1993) idea, “Any learner who is obliged to do

something under pressure will perform abnormally and may therefore experience anxiety”

(p. 6). In this case, the mocks are not necessarily an obligation but the Saber 11° test is, so

the students took their responsibility seriously and performed abnormally to what they used


to in the common classes. Actually, students did not just looked nervous but they expressed

to be anxious, besides the fact mocks were considered a useful tool to improve.

Furthermore, addressing the materials, students did have good perceptions about the

initial material. They considered it was necessary and it helped them in the class, adding to

that, as it was indicated above, students showed to be very interested and excited in classes

in which they had to compete using different games, they celebrated, participated actively

and sometimes did not followed the rules as they were explained:

“Some of them were changing sits because they wanted to play with their friends but I

said it was not allowed, some of them followed the instruction” (Field note # 2)

This contrast with their attitudes at the moment of developing the mocks, which may

suggest the change of materials do change the attitudes of the students and indicate them

how to behave according with their conceptions about it.

In addition, there are also negative conceptions about the use of mocks, “Instead of

introducing more authentic materials [the teachers] prefer to use commercial textbooks,

most of which are basically modified copies of the exam paper” (Bailey, 1999, p. 31). As

Bailey indicates, mocks are simple copies of the Saber 11° test original question and the

activities, which were done in the classroom, were developed with the only purpose of

learning how to answer the question style. It is harming to the students when the real use of

language and communication are addressed, especially if it is consider the Saber 11° test

does not evaluate another skill than reading. It also matches with one of the Hypotheses of

Alderson and Wall (1993), “A test will influence the degree and depth of learning.” (p. 120)

Besides, it is not right to say that in this context the test is not necessary, because it actually

is and it determines in a certain level the students’ future.


Assessment

In this category, some initial changes in attitudes and perceptions were observed,

initially a little quiz was done and students did not took the activity seriously

“They were talking and did not followed the instructions” fragment taken from field

note # 3.

In contrast, more students expressed to consider assessment as necessary in the second

stage of the research, which is related to the fact they were so interested in the test and they

showed to be more serious and committed at the moment of developing the mocks than in

previous assessments. Adding to that, more students expressed to be nervous in the second

stage of the research, which matches with the fact they relate the test with their future and

the university, so this topic, becomes in a relevant one for them.

Autonomous learning

Autonomous learning in this research is an important indicator of the perceptions and

attitudes of the students because it reflects what students are doing by their own hand to

improve in their learning process. To start, it is important to highlight the difference in the

attitudes before and after the preparation for the test. Before the test, students asked

questions about their English autonomous learning as for example:

“One student asked about a word she said, she had been seeing on social media, “bae””

Short fragment taken from field note # 4.

As it is evident, students used to ask about their questions, but, related to what they did

on internet, which, they qualified as the most used tool to their autonomous learning, in


contrast students did start to ask about more academically issues in the second stage of the

research:

“Two students asked to me about another activity the teacher had told them to do but

they did not understand so they looked for the topic on the Internet but they still did not

understand so they asked for me to explained to them” taken from field note # 8.

This, is a change in the way students were focusing their autonomous learning, is a

confirmation to what they expressed when answering the survey. They referred the use of

technological tools to develop mocks and translations to practice in the second stage of the

research.

Alderson and Wall (1993) also consider washback as “what teachers and learners do that

“they would not necessarily otherwise do” (p. 6), in the case of the students they indicated

they were developing more autonomous learning, mainly, with technological tools related

to mocks in the second stage of the research. This change also includes the importance of

the test for the students. It is also explained by Cotterall, (as cited in Bailey 1999), “The

main characteristic of autonomy as an approach to learning is that students take some

significant responsibility for their own learning over and above responding to instruction”

(p. 41). In this case, the students took the responsibility of practicing on their hands because

they expressed to consider assessment is necessary for their learning process.

To conclude, washback effect did change the students’ perceptions and attitudes

changed in different ways. This, changes can be considered as micro-level washback

because it just affected individuals, which in this case were the students. The differences in

the perceptions were identified in three different groups of categories which were, English

class, autonomous learning and assessment, in each of these categories students expressed


to be more interested, more active and receptive at the moment of preparing for the test, at

the same time they were doing their own autonomous learning at home. The idea of the

importance of the test and assessment in general increased, which showed us a change in

what students considered necessary. As theory suggest the washback effect is an effect

capable of changing students’ perceptions and attitudes, showing as a result in this study a

change in the behavior and didactics in the class.

Conclusions

This concluding chapter portrays the final statements of this project, based on the results

of the survey, self-assessment and field notes implemented in a group of eleventh graders.

In addition, this chapter deals with limitations, implications as well as the further

research that may emerge with the findings of this process.

The findings of this project led us to the following conclusions when analyzing the

different data about the students’ perceptions and attitudes.

The students did change their perceptions about their learning task:

The initial students' perceptions about the English class, assessment and their autonomous

learning showed to be positive. They highlighted the importance of the subject in general

terms. However, when focusing the class on the preparation for the saber 11° test, students

expressed this topic was even more important and even more useful showing different

behaviors, attitudes and of course, giving more importance at the moment of answering not

just the surveys but to the class in general terms.


Students did change the focus of their activities:

Students changed the way they developed their activities, they went from asking questions

about vocabulary and their personal interests, to ask about the test and more academically

issues, which suggest, they did a differentiation about the purposes of the common classes

and the ones which were designed to prepare them for the test.

Students did change their perceptions about the kind of material they had to use when

developing their autonomous learning:

The students reflected about the kind of material they used when practicing autonomously.

Some of them went from listening to music and watching videos to practicing with online

mocks, which usually are offered by free to promote preparation courses, but that at the end

of the day work as very accurate simulations of the questions and response options they

will have in the real test,. Adding to that they started to look for information about the test

and to use the translator to acquire vocabulary.

Students did change their attitudes and behaved more serious and committed:

The students’ behavior and attitudes showed to be clearly different in both stages. On one-

side students showed to be relaxed and to address the class as any other they were used to,

on the other hand, in the second stage, students showed to be more committed and serious

about the activities which were related to the preparation for the test. Students worked

harder and asked more questions when they knew the final purpose was the preparation and

in a long term to improve their score in the test.


Finally, as a way of summarizing the findings regarding this project, washback effect is

an important factor and do changes students’ perceptions and attitudes towards their

learning task, in the way they show to be more committed and responsible about their

actions to get a good score. It allowed them not just to be aware about the process they

were dealing with, but, more specifically, with the activities they were developing for this

purpose.

On the other hand, it is possible to highlight the way students do a differentiation among

the purposes of the classes and behave in the way it is commonly expected from them,

depending on the situations and tasks demanded.

Pedagogical implications

The pedagogical implication this project had is directly related to the different dynamics,

which arise at the moment of addressing the preparation for a test and the teacher’s role

when preparing students for the test. The common way of proceeding is to give to the

students different tools to reinforce what is most commonly seen in the saber 11° test,

reading comprehension. This implies a series of activities regarding reading and writing in

some occasions. The way teachers can improve and show more interest about this

preparation for the students is related to take advantage of the changes in the perceptions

and attitudes the students show. This, to improve program and give them, not just more

information about the test but the real resources in grammar and reading comprehension

they need to solve it, without focusing on teaching the students how to solve the questions

or the typical tips to get a good score.


The importance of this lies on involve the student in their own process and make them

aware tests are the way to assess a complex and long process which cannot be replaced by a

two week course of how answering and get good scores.

Limitations

During the development of this research, there were numerous limitations, which need

to be taken into account because they prevented in some way the most favorable

development of this research.

The first limitation is related to the time that was available with the students. The fact

the students were so close to the date in which they had to take the test, did proved to

evidence certain changes, but, more time would have been necessary to address this topic in

a wider way and get to analyze the results of the students and even their changes after the

test was done.

The second limitation is the fact the national test Saber 11° just addresses reading

comprehension. This limits not just our job inquiring about the effect but the students’ own

perceptions and attitudes towards their learning task. The fact they think English subject is

just about reading and writing limits their initial conception about what they are supposed

to do in the classroom.

The third limitation was the fact there were two groups at the school which were going

to take the test, but as practitioners just had access to work with one, this caused this

research to be limited to a certain number of students instead of the totality of the students

at school.


Recommendations for further research

Bearing in mind this research showed washback, actually, changes students’ perceptions

and attitudes, it could be necessary to go deeper and start to shape those changes into a

whole program, which favors not just their motivation towards the test but to expose the

students to a more complete view of what English is and what the test is for.

On the other hand, the limitations contributed to have just initial conclusions about this

topic. It could be interesting to have complete results about the changes of the students after

the test too, to have another punctual comparison among the changes in their normal

classes, just before the test and after the presentation. Adding to that, to have into account

the results would have been important under the point of view that, the students’

perceptions and attitudes affect their performance too.

Finally, it would be interesting to explore the changes in perceptions and attitudes from

teachers, administrators, principals and parents, which is the main statement of washback,

all participants, processes and products are affected when a test is coming.


Glossary

Attitudes: It refers to the reactions and evaluative tendencies based on opinions, feelings or

believes a person has about o referent. They are often expressed or showed through the

behavior.

Assessment: It refers to the numerous ways and tools of evaluating and report the learning

process of a student.

Case study: It is the intensive analysis of an individual or a group, it is mainly analyzed

under the focus of the changes in the environment and it studies the participants’ behavior

over time, in this case, the case study was done with a group of 32 eleventh graders.

Learning task: It is the set of specific activities the students address to get to an specific

learning goal, this learning task is related with the training needs and in this case with the

needs which emerge from the implementation of the test.

Limitations: The limitations are the different situations or difficulties, which prevented the

development of the research at some point; it can also refer to the different setbacks during

the process of developing the research.

Mocks: A mock is a simulation of a real test; it shows the same kind of questions and way

to answer for the students to practice. In this case, the mocks, which were used, were real

test from previous years that had the same purpose of giving the students an approach to the

real test.

Perceptions: This term is understood as the interpretation of reality people do according to

the environment and personal features, it can be individual, according to personal

experiences or collective, according to the point of view of a group.


Research: It is the act of studying something in depth in order to generate new knowledge

about it or to promote new information to expand its understanding.

Saber 11° test: It is an standardized test designed by the ICFES ( The Colombian Institute

for the Evaluation of Higher Education) and guided by the MEN (National Ministry of

education) to select the students for higher education, to monitor the quality of education in

the country and to produce data about the performance in the educational system.

Teaching task: It is the series of activities a teacher needs to develop to get to an specific

objective with his students’ learning process, this activities, usually involve the use of real

language and real situations.

Triangulation: It is a way of verification data in which the researcher uses two or more

methods to verify the data collected from the same phenomenon.

Washback: This term is understood in this research as the one that affects all the different

factors in education when taking a test. Adding to that, it is important to specify that this

research is just focused in washback affecting the participants, more specifically the

students, which limits the term washback to the cause of changes in students’ perceptions

and attitudes.


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Appendices/annexes

Annex 1:Formato de Consentimiento

Apreciado Padre de Familia:

Actualmente, nos encontramos realizando el proceso de investigación para nuestro

proyecto de grado dentro de las clases de inglés de grado once en el Colegio San Pedro

Claver. La investigación está enfocada en la descripción de las perspectivas y actitudes que

tienen los estudiantes hacia sus labores en la clase de inglés

Con el fin de llevar a cabo la investigación, le solicitamos muy comedidamente su permiso

para recolectar datos de su hijo(a) por medio de dos entrevistas y continuas observaciones de

la clase.

Cabe aclarar que ningún dato concerniente a la identidad de su hijo(a) será revelado o

tenido en cuenta en la publicación de la monografía y tanto la maestra titular (quien estará

presente en las clases) como el colegio y la universidad tienen conocimiento de este proceso.

No es obligatoria la participación de su hijo(a) y de ninguna manera habrá repercusiones

académicas o se verán afectadas las clases; por el contrario, es nuestra intención propiciar un

mejor ambiente de aprendizaje y convivencia. Por lo tanto si está de acuerdo y desea

colaborarnos por favor firme el siguiente formato y si tiene alguna duda comuníquese con

nosotros por medio de la profesora titular.

Cordialmente

Melina Calderón Castro -Santiago Aldana Vega

Estudiantes de Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yo _________________________ identificado con la CC No____________ de _________,

autorizo a mi hijo(a) ____________________a participar en el proceso de investigación

mencionado, siempre y cuando se cumpla lo anteriormente descrito.

Firma del padre, madre o acudiente

____________________________

Firma del estudiante

____________________________


Annex 2: Survey

Solicito su amable colaboración para responder las preguntas de este cuestionario.

Por favor marque con una “X” la opción que corresponda a la respuesta apropiada.

1. ¿Cómo considera usted que son las explicaciones de la clase de inglés?

a) Claras

b) Poco claras

c) Nada claras

2. ¿Cómo considera que es la clase de inglés?

a) Muy interesante

b) Interesante

c) Poco interesante

d) Aburrida

3. ¿Cómo considera que son los temas trabajados en clase? - Marque con una X en

cada uno de los grupos.

o Fácil

o Intermedio

UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE

CALDAS

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS Y EDUCACIÓN

Colegio San Pedro Claver IED

Grade: 1101 - Teacher: Santiago Aldana Vega

http://colegiosanpedroclaver.weebly.com/


o Difícil

o Interesante

o Poco interesante

o Aburrido

o Útil

o Poco útil

o Inútil

4. ¿Cuál es su percepción acerca de la intensidad horaria de la clase de inglés en el

colegio?

a) Poco

b) Bien

c) Demasiado

5. Escriba la primera palabra que se le viene a la mente al pensar en:

Clase de ingles ____________________

Idioma Ingles ____________________

Pruebas saber 11 ____________________

Simulacros pruebas saber 11 ____________________

Tarea ____________________

Practica ____________________

Material ____________________

Temas ____________________

Vocabulario ____________________

Habilidad comunicativa ____________________


Evaluación ____________________

Calificación (puntaje) ____________________

6. ¿Cuál es su percepción acerca de las evaluaciones?

a) Necesarias

b) Poco necesarias

c) Innecesarias

7. ¿Cómo se siente al saber que será evaluado?

a) Nervioso

b) Ansioso

c) Tranquilo

d) No le interesa Otro: ________________________________

8. ¿Practica ingles autónomamente?

a) Si

b) No Si su respuesta fue si, indique con qué frecuencia lo hace.

o Nunca

o A veces

o Siempre

9. ¿Qué tareas realiza cuando estudia autónomamente?

___________________________________________________________________

10. ¿Cree que el material utilizado en la clase de inglés es el adecuado?

a) Si


b) No

¿Porque?

_________________________________________________________________________

11. ¿Cómo considera los simulacros, estrategias de lectura u otra actividad especial

enfocada a desarrollar la prueba saber 11?

a) Útiles

b) Poco útiles

c) Inútiles

12. ¿Cree usted que los resultados obtenidos en la prueba saber 11 influirán en sus

calificaciones escolares?

a) Si

b) No

¿Por qué?_______________________________________________________________

13. ¿Cuál cree usted que son las habilidades que más se deben reforzar en grado 11?

a) Lectura

b) Escritura

c) Habla

d) Escucha


Annex 3: Self-Assessment

Nombre: _________________________________

1. ¿Cómo se sintió haciendo estos simulacros de la prueba Saber 11

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

2. ¿Cómo valoraría su actuación desarrollando estas actividades?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

3. ¿Cree que logro las metas que esta actividad quería evaluar?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

4. ¿En qué aspectos cree que tuvo éxito?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

5. ¿En qué aspectos experimento dificultades?


______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

6. ¿Cómo cree que puede superar esas dificultades?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________


Annex 4: Field note format

FIELD NOTE NO: 11

TOPIC: ____________________________ CLASS: _______

DATE: _____________________________ GRADE: _______

STUDENT TEACHER: _______________

CLASS DESCRIPTION

COMMENTS

PROBLEMIC

SITUATIONS

.


Annex 5 : Field note No. 2


Annex 6 : Field note No. 9


Annex 7 :Survey


Annex 8 : Survey


Annex 9: Self-assessment


Annex 10: Self - assessment


Annex 11: Mock (2014)


Annex 12: Mock (2015)

The Impact of Tests in Students Perceptions and Attitudes...

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