A Study Of The Classroom Assessment Methods For Middle School English Language Teaching In The Light Of Spolsky's Educational Linguistics Model

Globalization makes English more and more influential in our daily life.As an important subject in middle school,English has attracted much attention and how to check students' English learning has become a research focus.With the improvement of the quality-oriented education,English Curriculum Standards point out that we should emphasize formative assessment and promote students' integrated development.It requests English teachers to take learners as the center of instruction,to combine English knowledge with English skills and to shift assessment focus from summative assessment to formative assessment.Plenty of researchers speak highly of classroom assessment,but some research achievements abroad don't conform to our teaching situation and research achievements in our country fail to form a system.This thesis tries to combine classroom assessment with English teaching under the guide of Spolsky's Educational Linguistics Model.After the analysis of relationship between classroom teaching and assessment,this study sorts out five classroom assessment methods for middle school teaching in reference to New English Curriculum Standards.These methods are sizing-up assessment,classroom observation,portfolio assessment,performance assessment and paper-and-pencil test.These five assessment methods are adsorbed in the whole instruction process and focus on students' dynamic development,so they belong to formative assessment.This study searches theoretical foundations from different disciplines for these classroom assessment methods and applies these methods to teaching practice.Under the guide of Spolsky's Educational Linguistics Model,the author finds that both sizing-up assessment and classroom observation are based on Constructism Theory;portfolio assessment derives from Humanism Theory;performance assessment emphasizes authentic assessment,thus theory of Multiple Intelligence and System Functional Linguistic provide theoretical foundations for it;Behaviorism Theory supports paper-and-pencil test a lot.Based on related theories,the author exemplifies applications of five methods respectively.There are two influential factors in classroom assessment: internal factors and external factors.Internal factors refer to teachers and students;external factors consist of the society,the policy and the parents.During the assessment process,the teacher should pay attention to these factors.Moreover,its relationship with new science and technology is also critical.Combining theoretical foundations with applicational experience of classroom assessment,the author holds that students should be the center in every assessment and we should try our best to improve students' integrated development;the teacher should learn related assessment theory and choose assessment methods flexibly.Moreover,we should connect assessment to classroom teaching and valuethe feedback of assessment on classroom teaching.This thesis combines classroom assessment methods with middle school English teaching and lists five classroom assessment methods under the guide of Spolsky's Educational Linguistics Model.These five methods are discussed theoretically and practically.They can reduce students' testing pressure,improve teaching quality and make a contribution to assessing students' English level academically.