Empirical Study On The Effects Of Formative Assessment On Students’ Autonomous Learning Ability In Senior English Instruction

In recent years, our country has been concentrating on the reform of English instruction. However, students’ academic assessment in China has always been the traditional way, namely, summative assessment. Students only pay attention to rote memorization of knowledge instead of practical application and skills of language over time. Since they study passively, most of them are lack of autonomous learning ability, which seriously affect the implement of the English curriculum reform in our country. Long-term ignorance of reforming assessment methods makes it more difficult to further curriculum reform. Having analyzed the present situation of English instruction, the researcher tries to explore the effects of formative assessment on senior high school students’ autonomous learning ability on the basis of previous theoretical and empirical studies, hoping to get some new ideas for the English curriculum reform.After determining the subject, the researcher put forward his hypothesis in accordance with the relevant theories and studies. In the empirical study, the researcher assumes that formative assessment can better develop students’ autonomous learning ability and improve their learning in English instruction of senior high school. The research participants are 128 students from 2 classes of senior high in Hechuan middle school respectively. There are 3 stages in this study, including pre-test, instructional experiment and post-test. There are some specific research questions included in this research, namely, what is the specific situation of the participants’ English autonomous learning ability before and after the study and what specific effects do the Implementation of formative assessment in English instruction work on the participants’ English autonomous learning ability?The empirical study lasts 8 weeks. The research mainly uses four instruments: questionnaire, interview,portfolio and English tests. To be specific, questionnaire, interview and English tests are used respectively both in pre-test and post-test to know whether the students’ autonomous learning ability is improved after the study and to provide a basis as well as necessary support for the instructional experiment and the analysis of research results. The portfolio is prepared for the instructional experiment. There are kinds of assessment forms included, such as the forms of learning plan and preview, learning process assessment, classroom activity assessment as well as homework assessment. Students are asked to finish these forms seriously under the guidance of teachers.With the help of instructional experiment, the formative assessment is used throughout the whole process of English teaching, including pre-class, while-class and post-class. Based on the analysis of the data before and after the experiment, the researcher found that multiple formative assessment system can improve the students’ attitude towards English learning, develop good study habits and enhance their confidence in English learning, generally speaking, improve the level of students’ autonomous learning ability. As a result, it turns out that the implementation of formative assessment in English instruction may have a positive impact on students’ autonomous learning ability.