Vietnamese EFL Teachers’ Classroom Assessment Practice at the Implementation of the Pilot Primary Curriculum

Abstract

With the launch of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has introduced a pilot English curriculum for the primary educational level, which aims to help primary school pupils achieve level A1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The implementation of the new curriculum requires major change in teaching methodology, teaching materials and classroom assessment. A new textbook series has also been developed in alignment with the pilot curriculum. Methodology training workshops have been provided so as to facilitate the process of implementing the new curriculum and textbooks. Classroom assessment training curriculum developed in accordance with the pilot curriculum has been delivered to key primary English language teachers. This study reports our investigation into changes teachers have made in their assessment practice on the implementation of the pilot primary English language curriculum. The research involves 67 teachers of primary schools implementing the new curriculum. Data are collected by means of teachers' in-depth interview and assessment samples. The findings have shown that the investigated teachers have made effort to change their assessment practice so as to facilitate the new curriculum. However, there are still a number of contextual and perceptual factors interfering with the process of changing the assessment practice.