A Research On The Effects Of Formative Assessment On Junior High School English Low-achievers' Learning Attitude

As an international language,English has always played an important role in the country's education system.With the deepening of globalization,it becomes more important to learn English well.However,a lot of students,including the ones in junior millddle schools,have difficulties in the process of English learning,and they become English low-achievers gradually.One of the deep reasons lies in the traditional summative assessment,which cannot promote the positive learning attitude of students,because this evaluation method merely focuses on the results of learning,ignoring the learning process.In other word,with excessive attention paid to the examination performance,English low-achievers often feel worried and self-abased;the passive learning attitude has a strong impact on the improvement of learning ability.The research tries to apply formative assessment in the English class so as to bring up English low-achievers' positive learning attitude.Based on humanism psychology,constructivism,theory of multi-intelligence and cooperative learning,using self-assessment,peer assessment,teacher assessment and parent assessment as measures,formative assessment emphasized a students-centred learning process,and give students humanistic care at the same time.During the research process,the author uses questionnaires,tests,class observation,interviews and portfolios to collect data.The results prove that the evaluation approach influences the learning attitude of English low-achievers a lot.Compared with the traditional summative assessment,formative assessment can stimulate English low-achievers' learning attitude effectively.To be more specific,it strengthens students' motivation and self-confidence,pormotes their interest in English,and reduces their anxiety in the process of leraning.Meanwhile,their cooperative spirit between each other is enhanced and the strained relationship with their classmates,teachers,and parents is relieved.It should be particularly noted that the change in English low-achievers' attitude is largely responsible for improving their academic performance.Moreover,the English teacher has become beneficiary of the formative assessment since it contributes to get enough feedback information in English teaching,which makes it possible for the teacher to do appropriate adjustments to improve the quality of education.In addition,the role of teacher has also changed into an observer and a researcher from the class leader.