On Application Of Authentic Assessment To College English TBL With A Case Study

The objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way, so that in their future work and social interactions they will be able to exchange information effectively and at the same time they will be able to enhance their independent learning ability and improve their cultural quality.(College English Curriculum Requirements,2004:24) However, there are some problems in College English teaching which prevent us from gaining the objective. We tend to separate knowledge from real life, thinking from doing and misunderstand the value of and in English in classroom teaching. The application of College English TBL can help students analyze and solve real problems, and then construct personalized knowledge so as to realize the combination of knowledge and real life. Accordingly, language learning is done for students’ growing, which is the ultimate pursuit of language education. Authentic assessment, as an effective one for College English education, is a holistic human assessment, which focuses on language knowledge, skills, emotion, attitudes and strategies. It can improve students’ self-reflection and critical thinking by finding, analyzing and solving problems, which contributes to reconstruct the meaning and value of life.According to the analysis of the case study, authentic assessment can be proved to be an effective assessment for College English TBL. The thesis introduces the theoretical foundations, rationale, forms, validity, reliability and manipulations of authentic assessment. Based on naturalistic, constructive and humanistic theory of education, it overcomes the shortcoming of traditional assessment and realizes the integration of instruction and assessment by students’ constructing the content, criteria, performance observation and academic record actively. It is proved that authentic assessment, as an effective tool for College English TBL, can motivate students and improve their language knowledge, skills, emotion, attitudes and strategies.The theme of the thesis is to prove the hypothesis that authentic assessment is an efficient and practical assessment for College English TBL. It mainly discusses the following questions:What is authentic assessment? How to apply authentic assessment to College English TBL? What does authentic assessment influence College English education? The thesis consists of seven chapters. Chapter Ⅰ is an introduction, which states the background, motivation, significance, creativity of the case study and the theme and organization of the thesis. Chapter Ⅱ discusses the problems in the present College English teaching, the general situation of College English teaching and assessment, some fundamental knowledge of TBL and authentic assessment. Chapter Ⅲ introduces some theoretical foundations of authentic assessment. Chapter Ⅳ presents the preparation, subjects, method, and manipulation of the case study. Chapter V analyzes the results of the case study from the perspectives of students, teachers and instruction. Chapter Ⅵ explains some problems in the case study, describes a supplement experiment and suggests some means and ways of applying authentic assessment to College English TBL. Chapter Ⅶ summarizes the case study, pointing out the value and limitations of applying authentic assessment to College English TBL...