The Shadow of EFL High-stakes Exams on Learning: A Learner Side of the Story

Abstract

The reciprocal relationship between assessment and learning implies that while assessment measures students’ learning, it also shapes how they learn—particularly in the context of high-stakes exams. This paper investigates the washback effects of a high-stakes exam, the Jordanian General Secondary School Certificate English Exam (JGSSCEE), on EFL learning from a student perspective. It also explores whether current twelfth graders’ views vary according to specific demographic variables (gender, school type, and academic stream). To this end, a 44-item, five-point Likert-scale questionnaire covering three aspects of the learning process (planning, implementation, and assessment) was administered face-to-face to 500 twelfth-grade students. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS. Results showed that the JGSSCEE had a significant impact on students’ learning across all three dimensions. No significant differences were found based on gender; however, differences were observed based on school type, favoring public schools in the assessment and implementation dimensions. Additionally, differences based on academic stream were in favor of literary-stream students in the implementation dimension.