Development of Vietnamese Pre-service EFL Teachers' Assessment Literacy

<p>The importance of teachers’ assessment literacy has been increasingly emphasised in the literature. However, very little research has paid attention to pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy and how they develop this area during teacher training programmes. Moreover, there is a paucity of research on Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy. This study was conducted in three phases to address these gaps: (1) Phase 1 provided a description of current assessment training at four Vietnamese teacher training universities, (2) Phase 2 attempted to map out pre-service EFL teachers’ confidence levels in assessment literacy, and (3) Phase 3 mainly focused on the development of four pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy during their nine-week practicum at Bach Dang University (pseudonym). Phase 1 relied on individual semi-structured interviews with four Vietnamese teacher-trainers to describe the current status of assessment training for pre-service EFL teachers at four key teacher training universities in terms of: (1) teacher-trainers’ background, (2) course content, (3) method of instruction, (4) support for assessment training, and (5) constraints of assessment training. The teacher-trainers noted their lack of professional development in testing and assessment. The method of instruction varied for different teacher training universities. The results showed a greater emphasis on training in summative rather than formative assessment. Also, teacher-trainers identified two main constraints in the current training programmes including: (i) the lack of systematic innovation in language testing and assessment and (ii) the lack of labour, facilities and time for language testing and assessment training. In Phase 2, a questionnaire of pre-service EFL teachers’ confidence levels in assessment literacy was developed and validated. It was then administered to 365 pre-service EFL teachers. The results indicated pre-service EFL teachers’ high confidence levels in assessment literacy. Moreover, gender and career choice did not influence their confidence levels in assessment literacy while teaching experience and training in language testing and assessment did. However, those who had had more training scored lower confidence levels in assessment literacy. Phase 3 was conducted in two parts to focus on assessment literacy development of four pre-service EFL teachers. Part 1 had two stages. Stage 1 administered the same questionnaire as in Phase 2 to thirty-one pre-service EFL teachers to investigate their confidence levels in assessment literacy over three time periods: before their language testing and assessment course, before their practicum, and after their practicum. The findings showed a significant statistical increase in their assessment literacy confidence levels. In Stage 2, eighteen pre-service EFL teachers in Stage 1 participated in two semi-structured focus group interviews to check if their confidence levels reflected their assessment literacy. The results indicated a need for data triangulation to claim their assessment literacy based on confidence levels. Part 2 employed different research instruments including interviews, observation, stimulated recalls, and questionnaires to examine assessment literacy development of four pre-service EFL teachers over a nine-week practicum. The data indicated three main themes in pre-service EFL teachers’ development in assessment literacy: (1) pre-service EFL teachers’ development in: (i) giving feedback, (ii) designing test items, (iii) administering tests, (iv) observing students’ learning, (v) giving instructions, and (vi) improving their content knowledge, (2) pre-service EFL teachers’ individual differences in their assessment literacy development, and (3) incident-based learning of assessment literacy. Overall, this study offered insights into the dynamic, situated and developmental nature of pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy, which has useful implications for theory, research methodology and assessment training for pre-service EFL teachers. Moreover, the findings are very practical for different levels of administration, and for my role as a teacher-trainer in Vietnam.</p>

Development of Vietnamese Pre-service EFL Teachers' Assessment Literacy

<p>The importance of teachers’ assessment literacy has been increasingly emphasised in the literature. However, very little research has paid attention to pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy and how they develop this area during teacher training programmes. Moreover, there is a paucity of research on Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy. This study was conducted in three phases to address these gaps: (1) Phase 1 provided a description of current assessment training at four Vietnamese teacher training universities, (2) Phase 2 attempted to map out pre-service EFL teachers’ confidence levels in assessment literacy, and (3) Phase 3 mainly focused on the development of four pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy during their nine-week practicum at Bach Dang University (pseudonym). Phase 1 relied on individual semi-structured interviews with four Vietnamese teacher-trainers to describe the current status of assessment training for pre-service EFL teachers at four key teacher training universities in terms of: (1) teacher-trainers’ background, (2) course content, (3) method of instruction, (4) support for assessment training, and (5) constraints of assessment training. The teacher-trainers noted their lack of professional development in testing and assessment. The method of instruction varied for different teacher training universities. The results showed a greater emphasis on training in summative rather than formative assessment. Also, teacher-trainers identified two main constraints in the current training programmes including: (i) the lack of systematic innovation in language testing and assessment and (ii) the lack of labour, facilities and time for language testing and assessment training. In Phase 2, a questionnaire of pre-service EFL teachers’ confidence levels in assessment literacy was developed and validated. It was then administered to 365 pre-service EFL teachers. The results indicated pre-service EFL teachers’ high confidence levels in assessment literacy. Moreover, gender and career choice did not influence their confidence levels in assessment literacy while teaching experience and training in language testing and assessment did. However, those who had had more training scored lower confidence levels in assessment literacy. Phase 3 was conducted in two parts to focus on assessment literacy development of four pre-service EFL teachers. Part 1 had two stages. Stage 1 administered the same questionnaire as in Phase 2 to thirty-one pre-service EFL teachers to investigate their confidence levels in assessment literacy over three time periods: before their language testing and assessment course, before their practicum, and after their practicum. The findings showed a significant statistical increase in their assessment literacy confidence levels. In Stage 2, eighteen pre-service EFL teachers in Stage 1 participated in two semi-structured focus group interviews to check if their confidence levels reflected their assessment literacy. The results indicated a need for data triangulation to claim their assessment literacy based on confidence levels. Part 2 employed different research instruments including interviews, observation, stimulated recalls, and questionnaires to examine assessment literacy development of four pre-service EFL teachers over a nine-week practicum. The data indicated three main themes in pre-service EFL teachers’ development in assessment literacy: (1) pre-service EFL teachers’ development in: (i) giving feedback, (ii) designing test items, (iii) administering tests, (iv) observing students’ learning, (v) giving instructions, and (vi) improving their content knowledge, (2) pre-service EFL teachers’ individual differences in their assessment literacy development, and (3) incident-based learning of assessment literacy. Overall, this study offered insights into the dynamic, situated and developmental nature of pre-service EFL teachers’ assessment literacy, which has useful implications for theory, research methodology and assessment training for pre-service EFL teachers. Moreover, the findings are very practical for different levels of administration, and for my role as a teacher-trainer in Vietnam.</p>

importance of quantitative research in language testing and assessment: in the context of social works

These studies, in multiple fields, use many statistical analysis techniques and practices for these current studies. Some of these researchers like to be attributed to quantitative studies. Investigators are therefore intensely sharply divided, and they start competing to point out the advantages of their very own preferred techniques and technologies. However, both techniques and technologies possess pros and cons for all research teams. The objectives of this research are to know the advantages and disadvantages of using statistical research methodology for language measurement and evaluation. Focusing on ethical considerations, this study also found some strong points in the use of grounded theory for language assessment and research testing, such as the generation of more in-depth insights into the design, management, and interpretation of assessment and testing; and the exploration of behaviour, perceptions, feelings, and ability to understand of test subjects. A few other weak points are, for instance, smaller sample sizes and time-consuming quantitative research methods. However, on the other hand, they involve a large sample size and therefore do not necessitate a sufficiently long time to conduct.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEST BIAS AND THEIR WORKING AND TRAINING BACKGROUND

This paper aims to explore the relationship between how language teachers perceive test bias and where they are working, how long they have been working, and where they were professionally trained. The data were collected from 19 in-service English teachers from Eastern and Western settings. They completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to respond to test bias stimuli and answer questions related to their teaching background and training. The stimuli contained either of two forms of bias, unfair penalization and offensiveness. Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed teachers were not fully informed of possible forms of test bias and possible ways potential biases unfairly penalize or offend students. They were better able to recognize biases of unfair penalization than offensiveness. Statistical analyses revealed teachers with over 10 years of experience were better able to recognize potential test bias than those with less experience (at 90% confidence level). The findings contribute to the current limited literature on bias in classroom language testing and assessment, leading to implications for bias review in teacher-developed assessments and teacher training.

Review of English language proficiency assessments for young learners; Editors: Mikyung Kim Wolf, Yuko Goto Butler; Publisher: Routledge, 2017; ISBN: 9781138940369; Pages: 295

Language assessment has recently attracted a great deal of attention of both researchers and practitioners, which is evidenced, among other things, by a number of well-known monographs (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010; Coombe et al., 2012; Gordon & Rajagopalan, 2016; Gottlieb, 2006; Komorowska, 2002; Tsagari & Banerjee, 2016, to name just a few), as well as a proliferation of journals oriented towards language testing and assessment (e.g., Language Testing, Assessing Writing, Language Assessment Quarterly, International Journal of Language Testing and Assessment, and Educational Assessment). In recent years, great popularity of computers and easy access to the Internet have made it possible to move testing to a new dimension, through enabling Web-based testing (delivered via the internet) as well as computer-adaptive testing (see Krajka, 2016; Malec, 2018; Marczak et al., 2016). The use of computers has enhanced the assessment of not only target language skills and subsystems, which could be easily predicted, but also more complex constructs, such as intercultural communicative competence (Marczak & Krajka, 2014; Wilczyńska et al., 2019). Formative assessment, often referred to as assessment for learning (Black et al., 2003), dynamic assessment (Shohamy, 2015) or alternative assessment (Alismail & McGuire, 2015; Tedesco et al., 2014) is redefining the way school teachers think about assessment, moving them away from testing towards more comprehensive ways of evaluation. At the same time, even though a great number of publications have appeared on teaching young learners, also with a focus on assessment, this does not necessarily translate into widespread awareness of these assessment issues among teachers. The question might arise, then, whether there is a need for a new publication dealing with the complex nature of language assessment, and if yes, what kind of reader to aim at, how to bridge the gap between what is available and what might be desired, and how to structure it to respond to the changing educational reality.

The Importance Of Language Testing And Assessment At State Schools In Uzbekistan And Ways To Improve The Process

Language testing has been a prolonged and most discussed topic in education. While carrying out research anyone come across numerous hypotheses, theories, and methods. In this article, we have discussed the importance of language testing and assessment alongside the ways to improve this process at public schools in Uzbekistan.