Exploring How ELT Teachers Perceive and Practice English Language Assessment

Abstract

As a well-designed language education program naturally requires a well-designed assessment component, the pivotal role of assessment in language education needs to be stressed. This study focuses on how English language teaching (ELT) teachers receive training in English language assessment, and how they perceive and practice assessment in Turkey. The study was conducted with the participation of 198 ELT teachers from 24 K-12 level schools and eight universities. A mixed-methods research design was chosen and the data were collected through a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, observations, personal conversations, and sample exam evaluations. The findings indicated that the assessment practices of the teachers were shaped by the teachers’ language learning and teaching experiences, their intuition, adherence to assessment traditions, and the emulation of what other teachers conducted to conform to group norms. It was also observed that as the teachers did not receive proper pre-service and in-service assessment training, their assessment knowledge was low. Moreover, it was found that the assessment component of teacher training programs remained peripheral and did not help equip teachers with assessment-related theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Finally, the assessment quality in these schools was found to be low and assessment was taken as a formal requirement to grade students. In the final part of the paper, some suggestions for effective assessment are put forward.

Exploring Language Assessment Knowledge of In-Service English Language Teachers in K-12 Context

“…In the literature, a discrepancy is observed between the teachers' perceptions and their LAL-LAK Işık, 2021). Regarding the competency level of the teachers as they perceive themselves to be in assessing each language skill and their actual LAK, the results indicated that, in general, teachers' perceptions are reflected in their knowledge in that they generally felt competent and indicated high LAK level.…”

“…It was demonstrated that both pre-and in-service teachers had insufficient knowledge and skills in parallel with their perceptions since they did not feel competent and believed that assessing young learners is a challenging procedure to sustain. On the contrary, in another study with a wider context including primary, secondary, and higher educational context, Işık (2021) found that EFL teachers were confident with their current status even though they indicated low levels of LAL based on data obtained from a questionnaire, interviews, classroom observations, and sample exam evaluations. Concerned with the K-12 context, Ballıdağ and İnan-Karagül (2021) put forth that teachers needed further training due to their insufficient LAL.…”

“…It is also seen that research on LAL in Türkiye has lately become a subject of interest since most of the studies have been conducted in recent years. In the studies, knowledge (Genç et al, 2020;Ölmezer-Öztürk & Aydın, 2019), perceptions and practices (Arslan & Üçok-Atasoy, 2020;Büyükkarcı, 2014;Işık, 2021;Kırkgöz et al, 2017;Önalan & Gürsoy, 2020;Öz & Atay, 2017;Tanyer & Susoy, 2018), training needs (Ballıdağ & İnan-Karagül, 2021;Mede & Atay, 2017), and problems (Büyükkarcı, 2014;Tuzcu-Eken, 2016) as well as the impact of demographic and contextual factors (Büyükkarcı, 2016;İnan-Karagül et al, 2017) on language assessment have been analyzed. Higher educational context was mainly preferred by the researchers in Türkiye whereas the research regarding K-12 context is limited.…”

Moroccan EFL Public High School Teachers’ Perceptions and Self-Reported Practices of Assessment

“…Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to investigate this due to the small sample size. Other possible reasons, as stated by some researchers (Ghaicha & Omarkaly, 2018;Ghaicha & Oufela, 2021;Isik, 2021;Janisch, Liu, & Akrofi, 2007;Nasri et. al.…”