Teachers’ assessment literacy and beliefs contribute to encouraging or undermining students’ learning; therefore, investigating such literacy to fulfill the teachers’ training needs is essential. This quantitative survey study investigated the current level of 152 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ writing assessment literacy (WAL) in Turkey and identified their training needs in this area by means of a questionnaire. Further, this research explored the teachers’ beliefs about different writing assessment methods, general assessment issues in writing classrooms and then scoring accuracy in writing assessment. Although 80.9% of the teachers stated that they had already received prior training in WAL, a vast majority of the participants (over 90%) stated they need to receive training in all the investigated WAL areas. The training need areas which stood on the highest six ranks included “Using pre-designed integrated writing tasks”, “Designing integrated writing tasks”, “Giving feedback to students based on information from tests/assessment”, “Designing good writing tasks/tests”, “Using the scoring rubrics”, “Designing the scoring rubrics”, “Using self-assessment”, “Using peer-assessment”, and “Using assessment portfolio”. The detailed findings regarding the teachers’ beliefs in the above-mentioned issues are explained and discussed in the paper. To improve the situation, the shortcomings in the language teacher education programs in Turkey should be addressed.
EFL Teachers' Beliefs and Practices of Teaching Pronunciation in a Vietnamese Setting
