A Research Into The Formative Assessment In Middle School English Teaching

Traditional summative assessment values result more than process, knowledge more than quality, and selection more than encouragement. This kind of assessment cannot encourage the students' studying enthusiasm or motive. It can not bring the activity, creativity or initiative of the students into full play. It has led our English teaching and learning into an odd "examination-orientated education" circle. Our nation' s Compulsory Education Reform Essentials of English Curriculum proposes that the current assessment mechanism be reformed, a new assessment system which accords with the demands of quality education should be established to promote constant development of the students, the unceasing progress of teaching and learning, and steady improvement of the curriculum. Now the assessment reform experiments, which focus on formative assessment, have been carried out in many primary schools and middle schools all over the country.This thesis looks back to the origin of the educational assessment and the present research on it at home and abroad. It also inquires into the theoretical basis of the pedagogy and psychology of the formative assessment in terms of development education view, multiple intelligence theory and constructivist education principles. These advanced educational ideologies indicate the macro directions to the formative assessment reform.Through the formative assessment experiment, the thesis raises the experiment goal, lays down the experiment contents and standards and designs the formative assessment tools. It concludes that formative assessment has its incomparable advantages. It can promote thestudents' ability to grasp English knowledge, improve their language skills, encourage their positive emotion and attitude toward English learning. It can also develop their cooperative spirit, cultivate their ability to study independently, and make the students develop all-roundedlly and harmoniously.