A Study On The Application Of Formative Assessment To Oral English Teaching In Secondary Vocational School

English in secondary vocational schools is the consolidation and extension to the nine-year compulsory education.It is also an important and required basic course.Through language learning and practice,students could gradually master the basic knowledge and skills to improve language using ability and humanistic quality and lay a solid foundation for their professional development and life-long learning.However,English teaching in secondary vocational school reveals many problems.For instance,most vocational school students do not have solid foundation of English and of poor initiative and motivation.They lack learning interest and have low participation in class activities.They have English lessons and exams passively.The educational evaluation system has shown to fall behind in that students cram for the final exam,which will do no good to the improvement of students’ language ability,etc.To change the present situation of oral English teaching,besides the application of effective teaching methods and scientific teaching means,the reform of assessment method is of great importance.Guided by humanism and constructivist theory of learning,this research starts with the application of assessment to breakthrough these dilemmas and tries to apply formative assessment into English teaching.The distinctive features of formative assessment are feedback and process,which are different from summative assessment.This research explores to promote students’ learning interests and enhance the students on their active participation consciousness with the reform of assessment,so that they can improve their practical English skills in the workplace.This study uses empirical research methods,combining theories with practice and attempts to answer the following questions:1.What effects does formative assessment have on students’ interest in oral English learning in secondary vocational school?2.What influences does formative assessment have on students’ attitude to oral English learning in secondary vocational school?3.What changes have taken place in secondary vocational school students’ oral expression quality by using formative assessment?The experiment was conducted in two parallel classes majoring in flightattendant in Dalian harbor affairs vocational school,with 36 students in each class.It lasted about one semester.Class Flight attendant 1701 was the Control Class(CC).Class Flight attendant 1702 was the Experiment Class(EC).The Control Class adopted the summative assessment.The Experiment Class combined the formative assessment with summative assessment.The results display that the students show positive attitudes toward formative assessment,the atmosphere in oral English class is much more active than what they had before,students in EC finish the assignments initiatively and students in EC turn to be more confident to express themselves in English and really make great progress in oral English achievement.This research provides a reference to the English teaching and can be applied into courses like English and others in secondary vocational schools.However,during the process of this experiment,many actual problems emerged,for example,the sample size of the students who take part in this experiment is limited;the results are only the performance of the students in a short time;there are still many deficiencies in collecting and analyzing the data,etc.These all need further study and improvement in the future study.