Negotiation-Based Learner Assessment In EFL Course Of Middle Schools

Assessment is a process for obtaining information that is used for making decisionsabout students, curriculum and programs, and educational policy. When it is used in a correctway, assessment contributes to effective teaching and successful learning. However,traditional assessment has been overemphasizing pencil and paper tests, thus impeding theoverall development of students. Therefore, it is demanding to explore alternative models ofstudent assessment.English Curriculum Standards (2001) indicates that the assessment ought to combineformative assessment together with summative assessment so that it can put equal emphasison both process and outcomes. To meet the new requirements of assessment system, manyassessment techniques are introduced to EFL course of middle schools such as questionnaires,interviews, portfolios and so on. These techniques are very useful to assess students and theirlanguage learning in a formative way. However, these techniques only deal with the specificassessment items, thus lacking the guidelines about the entire process of language instructionand assessment. Therefore, the present thesis proposes negotiation-based learner assessmentthat is an operational model based on the conception of formative assessment. The assessmentmodels featured by negotiation have dominated over the present assessment system, such asStake's responsive model and Eisner's connoisseurship model. These models are mainly toassess curriculum and programs, while the suggested model to assess students and theirlearning.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to thedevelopment of assessment system at home and abroad, and to the new requirements of theassessment in EFL course of middle schools. Chapter Two sums up the drawbacks oftraditional assessment in the respects of purposes, participants, contents and methods.Traditional assessment fails to meet the new requirements of the assessment in EFL course ofmiddle schools because ⑴ it aims at selection of students for further study, ⑵ it is usuallycarried out by special committees,⑶ it is centered around basic knowledge and skills, and ⑷it relies too much on quantitative methods. Chapter Three proposes negotiation-based learnerassessment as an alternative model of student assessment. This chapter starts from theoreticalfoundation and different assessment models featured by negotiation. Based on the discussionabove, negotiation-based learner assessment is put forward, which helps teachers discuss withthe current students their learning objectives, process and outcomes during the entire processof any learning experience in order to make accurate decisions about them as well as to recordand report their progress over time. Finally, the chapter illuminates negotiation-based learnerassessment from the angles of features, purposes and the roles of participants. Chapter Four isthe core of the thesis. In this chapter, negotiation-based learner assessment will be carried outwith one ninth-grade class. According to English Curriculum Standards (2001),negotiation-based learner assessment needs to cover the linguistic domain, the strategicdomain, the affective domain, and the cultural domain. The author of the thesis suggest thatnegotiation-based learner assessment should be conducted at the three stages:⑴ Unit assessment which sees one unit as the learning experience of negotiation-based iiilearner assessment. The assessment relies on observation, journals, tests and portfolios toassess students and their learning during the process of every unit.⑵ Mid-term assessment which sees half a term as the learning experience ofnegotiation-based learner assessment. The assessment relies on learning contract andquestionnaires to assess students and their learning during the process of half a term.⑶ Terminal assessment which sees the whole term as the learning experience ofnegotiation-based learner assessment. The assessment relies on final ratings to a...