An Investigation on the Attitudes of IELTS and TOEFL iBT Teachers: A Quantitative and Qualitative Washback Study

Abstract

This quantitative and qualitative study, probably the first of its kind in Iran, compared the attitudes of IELTS and TOEFL iBT teachers towards the tests. It aimed to see whether the tests promoted positive washback on the attitudes of the teachers, since the tests are intended to measure the broader construct of communicative competence. The study compared instances of positive and negative attitudes of the teachers towards these two competitive tests. Understanding teachers’ attitudes help to predict their teaching behaviors. To do so, a questionnaire was administered to randomly selected 40 teachers actively involved in preparing the students to take IELTS and TOEFL iBT, and ten of them were interviewed. While chi-squared was used to analyze the data gathered from questionnaires, the interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The results indicated that both IELTS and TOEFL iBT had strong influence on the attitudes of the teachers. However, the IELTS teachers’ attitudes were more affected by the test. Although there was some positive washback of the tests, the study found instances of negative attitudes of both IELTS and iBT teachers towards the tests. This suggests that the test washback on the attitudes of the teachers may not always correspond to the effects intended by the test designers. The article also suggests pedagogical implications for test administrators, curriculum developers and teachers.