The impact of high-stakes tests on the teachers: A case of the Entrance Exam of the Universities (EEU) in Iran Melor Md Yunus 1 , Hadi Salehi 2+ and Sara Kashefian Naeeini 3 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2 Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Isfahan, Iran 3 Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran Abstract. The Entrance Exam of the Universities (EEU) in Iran is a multiple-choice high-stakes test that affects the teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders. The EEU is designed to screen the high school graduates for admission into higher education. This study aimed to explore the impact of this high-stakes test on the Iranian high school English teachers. To achieve the aim of the study, a validated survey questionnaire was administered to stratified random sample of 132 high school English teachers who were teaching in the five main educational districts in the city of Isfahan, Iran. The data analysis revealed that little attention was given to three language skills of speaking, writing, and listening in the classroom as these skills are not tested in the EEU. Moreover, the EEU negatively and implicitly influences English teachers to teach to the test format. Key words: Entrance Exam of the Universities (EEU), High-stakes test, Stakeholder, English teacher 1. Introduction The concept of testing can be viewed from two different perspectives: traditional testing and use-oriented testing (Shohamy, 2001). The main focus of traditional testing is on designing and developing quality tests to accurately measure the knowledge of testers. Traditional view focuses on the objective type of items and ignores the test use. In fact, traditional testing takes tests as isolated events from test takers, educational system, and society. Use-oriented testing, on the other hand, takes testing as an embedded issue in educational, social and political contexts. This view “addresses issues related to the rationale for giving tests and the effects that tests have on test takers, education and society” (Shohamy, 2001, p. 4). A great number of issues such as test takers’ activities for the test, the teachers’ method of teaching, materials designed for the test, and the effects of the test results on the stakeholders are all taken into consideration in use-oriented view of testing. Therefore, from use-oriented view of testing, this study aimed to explore the impact of the EEU on the Iranian high school English teachers. 2. Research background Although a great number of studies have been conducted on the effect of the tests in different contexts, little attention has been given to the high-stakes university entrance exams. Researchers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, and Turkey dealt with the English section of the university entrance exams in their own countries. The findings of these studies revealed that high-stakes tests should be examined based upon context in which they are administered (see Qi, 2004; Cheng, 1998; Watanabe, 2004; Ferman, 2004; Yildirm, 2010). Therefore, picking up on the complexity of this phenomenon, this study aimed at exploring the impact of the EEU in Iran on the high school English teachers. Since1960s, the EEU in Iran has been the sole criterion for the admission into higher education. This national test is a combination of some multiple-choice + Corresponding author. Tel.: (0060176538260) E-mail address: (hadisalehi1358@yahoo.com) 221 2011 International Conference on Humanities, Society and Culture IPEDR Vol.20 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore