The Application Of Formative Assessment In Writing In English Class

At present, summative assessment is adopted at large while dealing with secondary school students' performance in China, which is mainly in the form of quiz, mid-term and final term examinations. None appears to offer information about individual students' reasoning process. It has become increasingly evident that the results of traditional standardized tests are not telling teachers all they need to know about student progress in learning (Luo,2001). The new English Curriculum Standard of senior school defines the curriculum goals as comprehensive language proficiency, including language knowledge, skills, learning strategies, attitude etc. Therefore the traditional quantity-based summative assessment becomes powerless in testing students' language competence, especially in evaluating meta-cognitive factors on language learning. Formative assessment is a kind of qualitative assessment, which provides both teachers and students useful information for their future development, and help students become active learners (Luo,2001). However, researches about formative assessment in China, either in theory or in practice, are not enough to meet the increasing needs of the current situation.This study was undertaken to find out whether formative assessment could more facilitate the improvement of secondary school students' writing ability than summative assessment. The study provided a tool of formative assessment, which evaluated the students' writing process through developing students' writing portfolios. The hypotheses were put forward. 1) Formative assessment can't more facilitate the improvement of secondary school students' writing ability than summative assessment. .2) Formative assessment can more facilitate the improvement of secondary school students' writing ability than summative assessment. 100 students of senior two in No.1 Middle School of Baiyin were chosen to participate in the study as subjects. They were divided into two classes at random, for which summative assessment and formative assessment were respectively provided. Both classes were required to take a pretest at the beginning of the experiment to decide on their writing proficiency, and one posttest was given at the end of the experiment to reveal the change as exactly as possible. At the same time, two questionnaires were designed and distributed before and after the experiment, mostly for the purpose of examining the changes in the participants with regard to their attitudes towards writing. The two classes were compared according to the scores of the tests and questionnaires. The results showed that the experimental class under the formative assessment achieved higher rate in writing ability than the control class under summative assessment. Thereflective awareness and attitude toward writing in experimental class also improved greatly. So conclusion is made that formative assessment can more facilitate secondary school students' writing ability than summative assessment, it is more helpful to foster students' writing interests and hasten their ability of self-reflection, thus it can help make the students become independent learners.