EFL High-Stakes Exams: Are We Leading Teachers as Language Teachers or Test Teachers?

Abstract

This paper reports on a study investigating the washback effects of the Jordanian General Secondary Certificate English Exam (JGSCEE), a high-stakes exit exam for second secondary school students (12th grade) in Jordan, on EFL Teaching from a teacher's perspective. It also investigates whether teachers’ views are influenced by certain variables, such as gender, school type, and years of experience. A questionnaire that covered three dimensions of the teaching process) planning, implementation, and assessment0 was distributed face-to-face to a sample of 171-second secondary grade EFL teachers. Data were analyzed using descriptive and referential statistics via SPSS (Version 23). The results showed that the JGSCEE had a great influence on teachers' practices at the level of each of the three teaching process dimensions. As for the classifying variables, the results showed no statistically significant differences (α= 0.05) associated with the years of experience. On the other hand, the responses varied significantly according to gender in the planning dimension in favor of female teachers and according to the school type in favor of private ones on the three dimensions.