A Study Of Formative Assessment In English Writing Teaching Of Three-year College Students

At present, writing is the relatively weak link in the English teaching of three-year college students in China. The writing process is not only the writing and teaching process, but also the assessing process. The traditional summative assessment goes against the"student-centered"teaching principle. Students'creativity cannot be inspired under such assessment. Formative assessment in writing pays more attention to students'emotion, attitudes and efforts, emphasizing the whole writing process and providing feedback timely to improve students'writing ability. It stresses students'initiative. Formative assessment has caught worldwide concern among educators. But currently, in China, the main assessment in English teaching still stays on summative assessment, and formative assessment has not been stressed enough among educators. The studies of formative assessment in English teaching especially in writing teaching of three-year college students are few in China. So the study is of great significance. The purpose of the research is to investigate and prove the effectiveness of formative assessment in English writing teaching of three-year college students in order to improve students'writing ability and the teaching quality.In this study, 80 non-English majors in two classes from Tangshan College are chosen as the subjects of the research. Class One serves as the Experimental Group, Class Two serves as the Control Group. The Experimental Group is conducted with formative assessment; the Control Group follows the traditional summative assessment. There are no significant differences on English writing ability between the two groups according to the data gathered from the pre-test and Questionnaire I. In the procedures of the research, self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher assessment are combined to provide feedback timely. Portfolios are established at the end of the research. Finally, in order to testify the effect of formative assessment in English writing teaching, post-test and Questionnaire II are carried out. SPSS11.5 is used for analyzing the data gathered from two tests and two questionnaires.Through the statistical analysis, some conclusions have been reached. First, formative assessment is superior to summative assessment. Second, under the application of formative assessment, students'writing competence has been greatly improved. Third, in the Experimental Group, students'attitudes toward English writing and their reflection awareness have changed more positively and dramatically. At last, both high-achievers and low-achievers in the Experimental Group have enhanced their writing competence, while low-achievers'progress is greater.Finally, some implications are drawn from the study. Teachers should combine formative assessment and summative assessment to promote and test students'writing ability. When applying formative assessment in English writing teaching, teachers should follow the principles of equality, practicality, development and flexibility to arrange time and use modernized equipment to improve its effect.