Application Of Formative Assessment In Senior English Teaching

The new English curriculum standards make it an inevitable trend to change the traditional pattern of assessment which focuses only on study results rather than study process, leading to student lack of creativity and spontaneity due to its neglection of student feelings and attitude in the process of learning. Instead, it now advocates the use of summative assessment in combination with formative assessment.Formative assessment is more focused on student achievement, student behavior, student attitudes toward school and themselves, student goals and needs concerning the outcomes of foreign language learning, student work habits, learning styles and strategies and their potential of educational success. Research has found attaching importance to student development in the process of learning can stimulate learning motivation and promote the all-round development.Aiming at improving senior students’comprehensive English ability, the present research tries to apply the concept and procedure of formative assessment to English teaching in senior school, designing lessons of different kinds such as listening, project, writing, vocabulary and grammar etc. and putting forward examples of its application so as to help students develop their learning ability and methods. Through data collection and analysis, we find that the application of formative study in teaching has achieved some positive changes in students’attitude to English and their strategies used in learning; and their performances in tests have been improved. What is more, our lesson-study activities have proved to be effective in promoting the teacher growth.