Application Of Formative Assessment In College English Reading Teaching And Learning

Assessment is an indispensable part in English teaching. Formative assessment, as an important form of assessment, aims to facilitate learners’English learning and improve teachers’teaching methods by way of providing feedback to teachers about learners’daily performance, their achievements, their learning strategies and attitudes. At present, many students have a lot of problems in English reading, such as lacking of reading skills, learning interest and self-confidence, negative learning attitudes and bad learning habits, poor independent learning ability, etc. In view of this situation, this paper proposes to change the traditional way of assessment by adopting formative assessment with a view to solving problems in teaching of reading and helping students to cultivate interest and self-confidence in reading, to form positive attitude and good learning habits towards reading, and to enhance their independent learning ability.This thesis aims to explore the function of formative assessment in English reading class. The three hypotheses are as follows:1) formative assessment can facilitate English learners in their English reading competence;2) students’ attitude towards English reading and learning habits can be improved in the practice of formative assessment;3) students’ attitude towards English reading and learning habits have positive correlation with their achievements. The66subjects in the research are freshmen in East China University of Science of Technology, who are at similar English level from two classes. The two classes are divided into controlled group and experimental group. The former adopts traditional summative assessment and the latter adopts formative assessment. The methods of data collection are observation, questionnaires, interviews, portfolios and tests.From the data collection and analysis in one semester, it is discovered that although the achievements of the students of experimental group are not significantly better than those of the students of control group maybe because of the improvement of students’ learning ability can not have a qualitative change in a short period of time, the practice of formative assessment can facilitate English learners in their reading practice to some extent. Students’attitude towards reading has been changed and the habits of learning of the students of experimental group have been developed in the process of formative assessment. It is also found that there is positive correlation between students’attitude and learning habits and their achievement in reading, which means positive learning attitude and good learning habits are helpful to improve students’achievements. In addition, the experimental results show that the research itself has some limitations, such as the duration of formative assessment is not long enough, sample size is small, data analysis and the research is not deep enough, etc.The results of this study have certain significance for both English teaching and learning. Teachers should have interaction with learners in their learning activities and stimulate their learning potential. On the other hand, learners should be fully aware of the importance of cooperation with their classmates, involve themselves in the interactive activities and improve their learning attitudes and habits in order to improve their English competence.