Investigating The Effect Of Formative Assessment On Senior Three Students’ Writing Classes

Assessment is a main factor of English course, and a scientific assessmentsystem ensures the success of the curriculum goals. The New English CurriculumStandard for senior high schools defines the curriculum goals as achievingcomprehensive language proficiency, which includes language knowledge，skills，learning strategies, attitude etc．These curriculum standards specially focus on theevaluation system reform and changes to inspire students’ learning interest, learningautonomy and to promote students’ English language learning. In the process ofEnglish teaching, it’s better for us teachers to give priority to formative assessment soas to cultivate and develop students’ integrated language skills and self-confidence,form positive attitude toward language learning, and foster autonomous learningabilities. Therefore, introducing formative assessment to our evaluation system andtrying to improve students’ writing abilities through formative assessment isbecoming a new direction for reforming senior high school English writing classes.The research questions of this study are:1. To what extent dose theapplication of formative assessment affect senior three students’ writing abilities?2.Among the four ways of formative assessment used in this study, which one promotesstudents’ overall writing abilities more significantly? Through teaching experiment,this author compares the information and data from the control and the experimentalclass and aims to answer the research questions. The subjects are80senior threestudents,40in the control class and40in the experimental class. This author usedformative assessment in the teaching of writing in the experimental class, while in thecontrol class only the summative assessment is involved. Pretest, posttest,questionnaire and interview are used as research instrument.The author makes an attempt to improve students’ English writing in theExperimental class by combining formative assessment with summative assessment.Formative assessment in this study involves self-assessment, peer-assessment，teacher-assessment，group assessment and portfolio assessment．The scores of thetests and questionnaires are compared and discussed．The results show that the experimental class under formative assessment application achieve higher scores interms of overall writing abilities than the control class, and students’ writing strategies,ways of evaluation, interest of writing are also improved．Meanwhile, data andinformation obtained from the questionnaire investigation and interview indicates thatamong the four different ways of formative assessment used in this study (awarenessof self-assessment, quality of peer assessment, and dependence on teacher’sassessment, and use of portfolio),“awareness of self-assessment” is regarded as themost significant in promoting students’ writing abilities.