An examination on the Washback effect of the Interuniversity Board Foreign Language Test (The example of Dicle University)

In this study, the effect of a problematizing foreign language test in Turkey, called IBFLE, is studied through a technical perspective called ?washback effect?. IBFLE is a proficiency test, which is essentially taken by university faculty members and their candidates to prove their linguistic competence. According to the ?Exam Regulations for the Candidates of Associate Professor?, the candidates are required to get a score of 65% or over to apply for the position of associate professor. Based on this fact, the population of the study included the full-time faculty members working at Dicle University, Diyarbakir. The total 575 faculty members were targeted, but a total of 161 participants took part. Of these, 144 were visited in person and the remaining 17 participated via e-mails. The participants were randomly chosen from 13 different faculties / schools located in the main campus of the University, and the majority of the respondents consisted of Assistant Professors.Quantitative data was collected by means of a questionnaire, consisting of open-ended and multiple-choice sections as well as Likert-type items. For qualitative data, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Statistical analysis of the quantitative data was performed using SPSS 17.0, and the analysis of the qualitative data was carried out by means of content analysis.The results revealed that private tuition is the most common study style for IBFLE takers. In terms of IBFLE success, females seem to be better than males, the participants taking English do better than the ones choosing German and French, and the group of Health Sciences have a higher success rate than the other two groups. Among the question types in IBFLE, the vocabulary questions are revealed as the most challenging and also as the ones that are most emphasized in IBFLE preparations. For the changes proposed for IBFLE, the respondents are most positive in the need for an all-inclusive test which would assess all four skills in the language. As regards the washback, it was revealed that the IBFLE is best useful in promoting the reading skill and that the remaining skills, i.e. listening, speaking, and writing are often ignored in IBFLE preparations.Key Words: Washback, Impact, Positive Washback, Negative Washback, IBFLE