An Investigation Of Self-assessment Section Of English Textbooks Of Primary And Secondary Schools

In recent years,self-assessment has been promoted as an important aspect in the global Assessment for Learning Movement.In China,newly announced English Curriculum Standards also encourage students to assess their own learning.The value of self-assessment stands out in the age of lifelong education.As an important tool to cultivate students’ Englihs key competency,English textbooks plays a crucial role in nurishing students’ self-assessment ability.However,despite that a large number of self-assessment related studies have been conducted at home and abroad,there is still little research in the field of English textbooks.This study hopes to,combining relevant theoretical and practical researches,explore the self-assessment section of English textbooks for primary and secondary schools so as to provide useful information for designers and users of the self-assessment section of textbooks.This study,combining literature review,text analysis,questionnaires,and interviews,explores the design level and use condition of the self-assessment section of textbooks from six aspects: assessment objectives and principles,assessment goals and content,assessment procedures and standards,assessment time,processing and application of assessment results,and assessment effects.Study results are: 1.Regarding “assessment objectives and principles”,primary school textbooks show an evolusion from “assessment of learning” to “assessment as learning” while secondary textbooks still reflect principles of “assessment as learning”.2.For “assessment goals and content”,in terms of the cognitive levels,primary and secondary school textbooks move gradually from lower levels to higher levels.In terms of the comprehensiveness of content,primary and secondary school textbooks pay much more attention to language-related abilities than to non-language ablilities.In terms of the openess,it’s convenient to adapt the items in primary school textbooks,but it’s inconvenient to adapt those in secondary school books.In terms of the attactiveness,primary school textbooks are attractive while secondary ones are not.3.Regarding "assessment process and standards",in terms of the text itself,primary and secondary school books are lacking in related guidance.In terms of the use of textbooks,primary schools use assessment process and standards while secondary schools don’t.4.For “assessment time”,primary schools will use self-assessment section every unit with a reasonable period,but secondary schools rarely use this section and spend too much time when they use.5.For “processing and application of assessment results”,primary and secondary schools lack specific feedback,guidance for stduents to refelct and improve and follow-up monitoring of students’ improvement.6.For “assessment effects”,using self-assement sections helps little in improving grades of English tests,but do help studnts in understanding how well they have learnt English and in raising their awareness of making self-assessments.In response to these conclusions,this study gives suggestions from two aspects: the design of the self-assessment sectionsof textbooks and its specific use.