The impact of english comprehensive assessment programon Taiwanese Junior High School students’ perceptions of english learning

This ongoing research investigated Taiwanese 9^th grade students'perceptions of a newly implemented education testing system, the Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students(guó zhōng jiào yù huì kăo). Starting from 2014, along-debated twelve year fundamental education reform was implemented in Taiwan. Along with this new education policy was the replacement of the Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP) for the previous testing system (the Basic Competence Test). This new assessment as well as the new education policy would undoubtedly make an impact on the students and change students’ learning perspectives. With English being one of the subjects in the exam, the purpose of this study was to investigate 9th grade junior high school students’ perceptions of the English CAP. Results showed that most students recognized the existence of the English Comprehensive Assessment and appeared to be motivated tolearn English; however, the test did not make any difference on students’ English learning activities, nor did it seem to have any effect on their test anxiety. As this is a newly carried out education system, it is hoped that the findings of this study may provide some insights for the authorities and English teachers.