Frequent testing: What are the real impacts of frequent quizzes on students, teachers, and instruction?

Year 2017, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 1 - 19, 30.01.2017

Gamze Öncül

Abstract

Frequent testing in education has been a popular research topic since the beginning of the 20th century, but it has rarely been discussed in the field of English as a Foreign Language. The review of the literature illustrates that the studies done on frequent testing in other fields mostly highlight the benefits of frequent testing while some of the findings suggest several drawbacks. This paper aims to look into teachers’ and students’ perceptions of frequent testing in an EFL setting, at Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus, School of Foreign Languages' Preparatory program. The data are collected with student and teacher questionnaires where the respondents are expected to evaluate the given perception on a five-point Lickert scale and interviews with volunteer teachers. The aim is to cross check the major conclusions on the benefits and drawbacks of frequent testing with students’ and teachers’ perceptions of frequent quizzes to find whether those conclusions can be considered valid in an EFL context. The results show that the teachers’ perceptions of frequent quizzes at METU, NCC, SFL, Preparatory Program are in line with the literature, and the respondent teachers do not have big problems with the frequency of quizzes as far as their quality and effectiveness are assured. The students, on the other hand, admit that frequent quizzes positively affect their learning and retention skills, but they do not agree that frequent quizzes help with exam anxiety or make any contribution to their attendance or study habits, and their performance

Keywords

language assessment, test frequency, testing effect, frequent testing, quizzes

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