There is a clear tendency for students, not only in Japan, but around the world, to study for a test by reviewing past tests and concentrating their efforts on the types of language and test items that are known to appear on such tests. It is equally clear that if a test can be prepared for, then the test no longer can be said to measure general proficiency. Rather, it measures how well people have studied for the test.
Thus there is the inherent danger of the test becoming the tail that wags the curriculum dog. Henning expressed this concern thus: "If there is no concerted effort to subordinate testing to explicit curricular goals, there is an ever-present potential danger that tests themselves with all their inherent limitations will become the purpose of the educational encounter by default" (1990:380).
This study was designed to determine whether "teaching for the test" in a Japanese university setting does, in fact, result in higher test scores. Specifically, we set out to determine if students who use material designed for TOEIC test preparation or for "Business [-1-] English" achieve higher gain scores than students who study an equal amount of time with standard language study materials.
There is a clear tendency for students, not only in Japan, but around the world, to study for a test by reviewing past tests and concentrating their efforts on the types of language and test items that are known to appear on such tests. It is equally clear that if a test can be prepared for, then the test no longer can be said to measure general proficiency. Rather, it measures how well people have studied for the test.Thus there is the inherent danger of the test becoming the tail that wags the curriculum dog. Henning expressed this concern thus: "If there is no concerted effort to subordinate testing to explicit curricular goals, there is an ever-present potential danger that tests themselves with all their inherent limitations will become the purpose of the educational encounter by default" (1990:380).This study was designed to determine whether "teaching for the test" in a Japanese university setting does, in fact, result in higher test scores. Specifically, we set out to determine if students who use material designed for TOEIC test preparation or for "Business [-1-] English" achieve higher gain scores than students who study an equal amount of time with standard language study materials.
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