A Study Of Formative Assessment Of English Writing In A Senior High School

Assessment is regarded as a significant part in English teaching.At present,the teacher-centered summative assessment is the primary tool of English assessment in Chinese senior high schools,which is mainly in the form of quiz,mid-term and final term examinations.In the sixth chapter of High School English Curriculum Standard(2012),the new demands on “assessment suggestions and assessment tools” are presented.The New English Curriculum Standard advocates updating the existing evaluation system,and adopting multiple assessment tools by combining formative assessment and summative assessment.It is proposed to mainly apply formative assessment in daily instructions,so as to attach more importance to students' performance and progress in the whole learning process.The New English Curriculum Standard expects to stimulate students' interest,enhance students' confidence and promote their autonomous learning ability,by adopting a new form of assessment.As a new type of assessment form,formative assessment is based on humanism and constructivism theories,evaluating students' all-round development process.It takes record on each section of students' learning,promotes students' self-reflection and cooperation ability,and embodies the “student-centered” teaching idea.Responding to the call of the New English Curriculum Standard,the thesis is an application of formative assessment in a senior high school's English writing class.The experiment is carried out to answer three research questions: 1).Can the formative assessment stimulate the students' writing interest? 2).Can the formative assessment promote the students' writing self-reflection? 3).Can the formative assessment facilitate the students' writing proficiency?Teaching middle-school students for years,it is convenient for the author of this thesis to conduct an experiment.Therefore,the author of this thesis carried out a five-month experiment research in the Senior High School Affiliated to Yunnan Normal University(hereinafter SHSAYNU).The research subjects are the 121 students in her two parallel classes in Grade One.Before the experiment,the students of the two classes accomplished the pre-questionnaires with regard to writing attitude,writing habits,writing knowledge and writing ability.In the meantime,a writing pre-test was finished by them as well.During the experiment,the experimental class was instructed with the formative assessment in the form of portfolios,peer-assessment and self-assessment.Meanwhile,the control class received the traditional summative assessment in writing classes.After the experiment,a post-questionnaire and a post-test were accomplished by the two classes.By analyzing the collected data,the author of this thesis finds that the writing interest,self-reflection and writing proficiency of the experimental class are better than those of the control class.In the thesis,the author illustrates the research background,research purpose and research significance of formative assessment in English writing.Then,the author elaborates the fundamental knowledge of formative assessment,the theoretical basis of formative assessment and researches on it at home and abroad.The research design,mainly including the research questions,subjects,instruments and procedures of the experiment,is introduced afterwards.After collecting the data of the pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire,the pre-test and post-test,the author analyzes the data and discusses the result.Last,the author summarizes the major findings of the research,obtains implications for future study in this field and expounds the limitations and weaknesses of the experiment,such as the limited research time and the small size of subjects,which can serve as suggestions for further research.