Turkish university EFL students attitudes towards non testfocused activities in relation to proximity of the test

Abstract

ABSTRACT While communicative approaches to language learning have been widely used in EFL classrooms recently, the testing of oral communication skills has been largely ignored. Therefore, attempts to update teaching approaches have become useless, since testing has not caught up with these teaching innovations. This situation has resulted in a mismatch between teaching and testing which takes two forms. First, speaking is practised in class, but not tested. Secondly, other language skills reading, listening and writing are practised in one manner in class, but tested in a different manner. This study set out to investigate students' attitudes when such a mismatch exists between the teaching of communicative language skills and testing in EFL settings. The purpose of this present study was to investigate whether there are significant differences in students' attitudes towards test-focused and non test-focused activities considering the proximity of the test, and whether students' proficiency level affects this relationship. In order to investigate this research topic, the following three hypotheses were made: 1) Students will demonstrate a more negative attitude towards non test-focused activities as the time of the test approaches. 2) Students will demonstrate a more positive attitude towards test-focusedactivities as the test time approaches. 3) Students' attitudes are modified by their proficiency level; that is, students at a high proficiency level will demonstrate more positive attitudes towards non test-focused activities than those who are at a lower proficiency level. In order to test these hypotheses, 20 intermediate level students at the Department of Basic English at METU were selected. The subjects were given two types of activities - non test- focused and test-focused - during the four week period before they took the class progress test. After each application of the activity, students were given the attitude questionnaire developed by the researcher. The findings of the study were as follows: First, as the test time approached students demonstrated more negative attitudes towards non test- focused activities. Secondly, the closer the exam was in time, the more. positive attitudes students demonstrated towards test-focused activities. Thirdly, students' proficiency level as a moderator variable did not affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, that is, the relationship between proximity of the test and students' attitudes towards test-focused and non test-focused activities.