A Study Of Formative Assessment In English Teaching In Senior High Schools

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of applying formative assessment to English teaching in senior high schools in terms of the improvement of students' English achievements, learner autonomy and self-efficacy. Current assessment practices applied to English teaching in senior high schools are summative and dominated by standardized tests, which leads to teaching for testing, not teaching for learning—the ultimate goal of assessment.The research questions addressed in this paper were as follows: 1). Does formative assessment help improve students' English learning achievements? 2). Does formative assessment help promote students' learner autonomy in English learning? 3). Does formative assessment help increase students' self-efficacy in English learning? The subjects were 100 first-year senior high school students, with 50 students in the experimental class and 50 students in the control class. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were adopted in this study. The quantitative data were gathered with the aid of the pre-test and the post-test, and a questionnaire. The qualitative data consisted of the transcripts of semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the English teacher and 32 students of different language levels in the two classes. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 11.0) was employed to process the quantitative data collected in this experiment. The interview transcripts gave some retrospective presentation as to the students' and the English teacher's perceptions of formative assessment applied to English teaching in senior high schools.The questionnaire survey revealed that formative assessment could significantly promote students' learner autonomy and improve their self-efficacy as well. Results of paired samples T-test of students' pre-test and post-test scores in the experimental class did show a significant advantage of formative assessment in the improvement of students' English achievements. The in-depth student interview revealed that the students in the experimental class enjoyed the new methods of formative assessment. They displayed an awareness of learning goals, learning outcomes and the action to be taken, which was a sign of strong learner autonomy and self-efficacy. It also confirmed the necessity of giving informative feedback instead of just a numeral mark to students. The interview with the English teacher supported the idea that teachers also benefited from formative assessment in that a wider range of information about students was available according to which they could adjust instruction to better meet students' needs. At the same time, the English teacher pointed out some constraints of formative assessment like the extra time and energy needed from both students and teachers that could probably hinder the application of formative assessment on a larger scale and within a longer period of time.The author of this paper recommends that the task ahead should be to support teachers and learners in implementing formative assessment and investigate the longer-term benefits of its use. It is also recommended that comprehensive and extensive teacher training in educational assessment should be put on the agenda in order to ensure successful implementation of formative assessment in English teaching in senior high schools.