This seminar will be conducted by 3-hour online Zoom sessions for four days: Saturday, January 23, Sunday, January 24, Saturday, January 30, and Sunday, January 31 from 10:00 to 13:00 (JST). Students taking this seminar for credit must attend all four days. Students can add/drop this seminar course by 14:00 on Saturday, January 23.

The pre sign-up (or course registration for those who are taking this seminar for credit) is required for anybody attending the public session on Saturday, January 23 from 10:00 to 13:00. The sign-up process must be completed through the "Distinguished Lecturer Series Seminar Sign-Up Form" that is available on TUJ Grad Ed website. The sign-up deadline is Friday, January 22 at 12:00 p.m. The public session Zoom link will be provided to those people who completed the online sign-up (or course registration) process by 18:00 on Friday, January 22.

Washback is typically defined as the effect that tests have on teaching and learning. Since the 1990s, research into the washback of language assessments has grown exponentially, yielding a large body of empirical evidence that demonstrates how tests influence various aspects of language education. This research spans multiple related fields including applied linguistics, language assessment, educational measurement, and education more broadly (where it is often called backwash). Influential washback studies have been conducted in diverse contexts including Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Japan, North America, Australia, Eastern Europe, and the UK. Moreover, washback research concerns the whole range of tests and test uses, including large-scale, high-stakes tests used as part of reform initiatives in national education systems, language proficiency tests used for employment, education or migration, classroom-based assessments, and low-stakes formative assessments. Importantly, washback research often utilizes a mixed-methods approach, where various sources of quantitative and qualitative data are combined to inform conclusions. In this course, students will learn about the washback process (how test factors interact with stakeholder and context factors to create washback effects), the role of washback in test validation, and how to conduct washback research to support learning and teaching. Seminar attendees will learn about both the classic washback literature and the cutting-edge current directions in the field. Students taking the course for credit will complete a proposal for a washback study in their chosen area as their graded assignment.