Washback is considered harmful then when there is a serious disjunct between a test’s construct of reading and the broader demands of real world or target language tasks.
Interest in exploring issues of test washback and impact has grown considerably over the past 15 years as awareness has developed of the impact that tests and test results have at a ‘macro’ as well as a ‘micro’ level; testing and assessment influence not only the career and life chances of individuals but also social policy and practice in areas such as language and educational planning, migration and citizenship, as well as professional life and employment in an increasingly globalised world. Today many language testers locate concepts of washback and impact within the theoretical notion of ‘consequential validity’ in which the social consequences of testing are part of a broader, unified concept of test validity. Consequential validity continues to be a core topic for theoretical debate and empirical research within the languagetesting and assessment community alongside related themes of fairness and ethics.