A Survey On The Current State Of High School English Teachers’ Writing Assessment Literacy

The research is based on the three-tier model as a theoretical framework,using a combination of questionnaires,interviews and classroom observations,and SPSS 20.0 as an analytical tool.The aim is to understand the current state of writing assessment literacy(WAL)among high school English teachers and the extent of teachers’ mastery and attitudes towards the China Standards of English(CSE)in practice.The research finds that high school English teachers’ achievement of WAL is not promising,with little knowledge but optimism about the CSE and writing scales.In the three-tier model,assessment knowledge refers to teachers’ knowledge when assessing second language writing;assessment concepts refer to teachers’ perceptions and emotions about writing assessment in their belief systems;assessment practice refers to the content and approach of classroom-based teacher assessment.In this research,a teacher writing assessment literacy questionnaire was developed.Two teachers were interviewed.Their classrooms were observed,and the results were analyzed.Analysis shows that teachers’ knowledge of writing assessment is poor.The teachers’ understanding of the purpose and reliability of the writing assessment was not accurate,and their knowledge of the assessment methods was polarized.They did not have a good grasp of the marking rubric but were able to express their views in relation to the continuation task.However,teachers’ concepts of writing assessment were more optimistic.This is reflected in the fact that almost all teachers agree that the ability to assess is one of the essential skills for teachers,that they believe that writing assessment provides good feedback for teaching and that they will self-adapt to complete the assessment task.In their writing practice,the frequency with which the two teachers used several assessment methods was broadly consistent with the perceived validity of these methods,mainly multiple-choice questions and essay tests.However,teachers were relatively new to CSE and writing scales.They had very little knowledge of them,especially those involving scale production,and lacked practical experience.After a systematic introduction,nevertheless,teachers become interested in it.They focused on knowing the graded proficiency scale to help students with proficiency orientation and strategy selection,and the precise use of descriptors to improve feedback.Teachers enriched their knowledge of assessment,expressed some confidence in their practice and looked forward to the results.This research attempts to enrich the current study of high school English teachers’ WAL,understand the application of the writing scale,and further explore the relationship between CSE and English teachers’ writing assessment literacy,with the following two implications for teaching.The first is that knowledge of language assessment guides the practice,but research shows a disconnect between teachers’ knowledge levels and professional training.Teacher trainers,therefore,need to keep the content of their teacher development training programs up to date.The second is that despite all teachers meeting the language proficiency requirement pre-service,they were still unable to promptly correct all classroom assessment errors and could not use assessment results to inform their teaching.Teachers need to continue consolidating their language knowledge and promoting diversity of assessment subjects.