CRITICAL DIGITAL WASHBACK (CDW); HOW DOES IT WORK IN ENGLISH NATIONAL EXAMINATION (ENE)?

CRITICAL DIGITAL WASHBACK (CDW);

HOW DOES IT WORK IN ENGLISH NATIONAL EXAMINATION (ENE)?

            This essay is merely based on class discussion under the topic, “Theories and principles of good language assessment development,” which was presented by group two on the third meeting. One interesting term discussed was about washback, especially when it is correlated with the issue of ENE. Yet, the discussion was ineffective and did not give enough understanding about the discussion. Ineffective because of limited time allocation for the group discussion and there was not provided with some previous research findings for the related references. Hence, this essay aims to extent the discussion with enough references and real practices on washback activities align with ENE.

            According to this group, cited from Brown (2004, p. 28), washback means generally refers to the effects the tests have on instruction in terms of how students prepare for the test. When the audiences tried to relate this topic with UN issue, the group presenter responded merely on the negative washback phenomena and could not provide enough examples on it. Hence, I needs to show the latest research article by Furaidah, Saukah, and Widiati (2015). They have analyzed that in spite of negative washback, positive washback is also consequently appeared at school activities as the effects of ENE. 

            What are the examples of negative and positive washback in case of ENE? There some examples of the negative washback. The first is rearranging the time allotment, adding time allocation for ENE subjects. At my school program, MTsN Pohjentrek Pasuruan, the principle adds 2 meeting hours at first semester and 4-6 meeting hours at second semester, to be allocated for ENE subjects. Spratt (2005) says that more curriculum time is spent on exam classes and that there are more students in exam classes than in regular ones. The second is modification in the teaching materials. I have experienced myself, when every year I have to design my teaching stuffs in order to fulfil the SKL guideline for my students. The third, increasing the teachers’ and students’ anxiety level (Ferman, 2004). It is already in common sense to all teachers and students around the world, included my school, that final test will arise high level anxiety.  

            Besides the negative washback, the increasing of students, teachers, and parents’ attention seems to be a kind of positive washback. Students, teachers and parents urged to more serious. Another positive effect is when the tests can direct teachers to teach the test to prepare their students; for example, when the format and content of the test are changed from multiple-choice questions to performance-based, teachers tend to teach more contextually.

            Personally, as a scholar and a teacher, I propose an idea/an opinion that critical digital washback (CDW) should become one of essential solution as teaching and learning strategy inside and outside classroom in facing ENE successfully. This paper question will be what is CDW and how do teachers and students practice it? Ariadi (2016) in his article stated that CDW is derived from three terms; critical, digital and washback. The first term is critical; it means critical thinking skill. Cottrell (2005, p. 2) defines critical thinking as a complex process of deliberation which involves a wide range of skills and attitudes. It includes identifying other people's positions, evaluating the evidence, weighing up opposing arguments, and so forth. The second term is digital; it means digital literacy. Gilster (1997) defines digital literacy as the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is presented via computers and, particularly, through the medium of the Internet. While the latter term, Brown (2004, p. 28), defines washback generally refers to the effects the tests have on instruction in terms of how students prepare for the test. Hence, CDW means promoting washback activities by utilizing some digital sources and digital tools as an interactive and creative media to tackling the ENE materials problems in critical ways.

            Further, how do teachers and students engage it inside and outside the classroom? Teachers introduce some digital resources which provide tutorials/tips to tackle some test items in ENE to students; such as in Youtube (e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phz1tceJHk4 Pembahasan UN Bahasa Inggris SMP/MTs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlnrKMCl3d8 Bank Soal Bahasa Inggris UN SMP/MTs Jitu, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5D7uKPVT4 Tutorial Bahasa Inggris - Pembahasan Soal dan Jawaban Bahasa Inggris Ujian Nasional, and many other interactive internet resources. Some applications which run in Androids for mobile phone can also be used; such as in http://www.majalahponsel.com/aplikasi-android-wajib-untuk-peserta-ujian-nasional-sd-smp-sma/, http://www.aksipelajar.com/aplikasi-android-soal-ujian-nasional-untuk-smp.html, http://erudisi.com/aplikasi-android-agar-kamu-lulus-ujian-nasional/ etc.

            Accordingly, after the students have already familiar with those websites or applications about ENE, teachers give tasks to their students in a group to assess and comprehend one to two materials provided attentively. They can assess at school or at home and to ensure the teachers that their students will do their jobs well, teachers should provide them worksheets which cover the process of assessing the sources, the materials, the place and time in assessing the materials, parents’ acknowledgement, etc. The design of worksheets determines overall the students’ activities in critical learning process, including comprehending, analyzing, evaluating and reporting the findings. Teachers as the worksheet designers have to think deeply in order to correlate the materials in internet resources with the ENE problems. Reporting the findings, of course, should be designed not only in paper-based but also digital-based which can be up-loaded in internet. Hence, the ENE washback can be done in critical ways by maximizing some digital tools and digital material resources fruitfully.

REFERENCES

Ariadi, E. S. (2016). Critical Digital Washback. https://plus.google.com/102282595511798462386/posts/4biRs6janFF Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/102282595511798462386/posts/4biRs6janFF

Brown, H. D. (2004). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Cottrell, S. (2005). Critical Thinking Skills. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Ferman, I. (2004). The washback of an EFL national oral matriculation test to teaching  and  learning. In Y. W. L.  Cheng, &  A.  Curtis (Ed.), Washback  in  language  testing:  Research  context  and  methods (pp. 191-210). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Furaidah, Saukah, A., & Widiati, U. (2015). Washback of English National Examination in the Indonesian Context. TEFLIN Journal, Volume 26, Number 1, January 2015, 26(1), 36-58. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v26i1/36-58

Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York: Wiley Computer Publications.

Spratt, M. (2005). Washback and the classroom: the implications for teaching and learning of studies of washback from exams. Language Teaching Research, 9(1), 5-29.