Formative Assessment in L2 Classroom in China: The Current Situation, Predicament and Future

Abstract

With the reform of English education in China since 2001, formative assessment (FA) has found its way into the key educational policy documents such as National English Curriculum Standards for Basic Education (NECS for BE) (MoE, 2001(MoE, & 2011, National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School (NECS for SHS) (MoE, 2003) and College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR) (MoE, 2004(MoE, & 2007 and therefore aroused the interests from both researchers and teachers. To understand FA development in China over the past 12 years, a synthesis study was conducted to analyze the current situation and predicament of FA in China based on the published FA articles in Chinese journals and educational newspapers from 2001 to 2012 and the published FA monographs and unpublished Ph.D.dissertations collected from various sources so far. The study shows FA is inadequately researched, poorly understood and improperly implemented in China. It is believed that the predicament of FA may be attributable to a variety of factors such as inadequate financial support, lack of quality research into various aspects of FA, imbalance of quality research focus, limited knowledge of the latest developments of FA, the shortage of L2-related FA research, the tension between FA and Summative Assessment (SA) in the dominant testing culture of China, the time-consuming nature of FA and lack of professional FA training. To solve these problems, by drawing on the local context and international experiences, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: (1) More financial investment supporting balanced quality research into important issues of FA; (2) Clarification of FA concept; (3)Study of FA in relation to underlying L2theories; (4)Promotion of student SA performance throughFA; (5) Development of ready-to-use FA; and (6) Strengthening professional development for FA. The context-based proposal for FA could provide a reference for other contexts similar to China, especially the Asian countries in terms of economical development and/or educational culture.

‘Complex teaching realities’ and ‘deep rooted cultural traditions’: Barriers to the implementation and internalisation of formative assessment in China

“…The cultural and epistemological differences between these two approaches are often perceived as incongruous, thereby creating a clash when combined. This is noted in the literature by Jian and Luo (2014), who explain that the tension between formative assessment and summative assessment is a significant factor in explaining why formative assessment has so far not been as successful as intended in the Chinese context. Moreover, the promotion of both formative assessment through policy and the continuing influence of summative assessment as a "social reality" has led to what Chen et al (2014) call "competing regimes of summative and formative assessment".…”

“…As a result, there is a dearth of literature on the role of formative assessment in secondary education in China (Chen, 2015) as most of the research on formative assessment has been focused on tertiary education (Jian & Luo, 2014). However, recent studies (Chen, May, Klenowski, & Kettle, 2014;Gu, 2014;Yu & Jin, 2014;Yin & Buck, 2015) have started to explore formative assessment in secondary schools.…”

Assessment of Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills in Teaching English

“…Standardized testing in reading seems very traditional today. The formative assessment tasks on reading comprehension make it possible for the readers to acquire both linguistic and communicative skills [3].…”

“…Moreover, developing reading comprehension skills in teaching English is more explored by many researchers [1,2]. Recent research highlight a few considerations exploring measuring reading comprehension that is most typically performed among university students [3].…”

Formative assessment in distance learning: narratives of Indonesian senior secondary school EFL teachers

“…Formative assessment aims to gain information about students' understanding of one basic competency that has been delivered by the teacher, where the information can be used by teachers and students to develop (Jian & Luo, 2014). This assessment is used during the learning process and may take a variety of forms, such as informal questions, quizzes, and fill the blank (Brown & Hudson, 1998).…”