High-Stakes Test Impact on Student Motivation to Learn

Year 2020, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 59 - 71, 30.10.2020

Saraswati Dawadi

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that explored the impacts of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) English test on students’ motivation to learn English. Unlike previous studies on test impact, this study has extensively explored both the pre-test and post-test impacts of the test on students’ motivation to learn English. The data generated through a longitudinal survey among 247 SEE candidates and semi-structured interviews with six students and their parents in both the pre-test and post-test contexts indicates that the majority of students (79%) were motivated to learn English in the pre-test context but more than half of the students (54%) were discouraged from learning English in the post-test context. There were several reasons behind their demotivation to learn English in the post-test context including unfair judgement in the test and poor conduction of its speaking test. Pedagogical implications of the study have been discussed.

Keywords

High-stakes, student motivation, test impact, test fairness

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