EFL Teachers’ Assessment Literacy of Young Learners: Findings from a Small-Scale Study

Öz

Assessing language skills is crucial for checking the quality of teaching. Teacher assessment literacy plays a vital role in deciding on the quality of classroom assessment. Although assessment is a time-taking process, the assessment of foreign language speaking and writing with their unique characteristics requires more time, effort, and expertise. Moreover, assessing the language production of young learners requires much more attention because the assessment is a part of teaching and has cognitive and socio-cultural foundations. Therefore, this small-scale qualitative research investigated three English teacher’s views and practices on how they assess their young learners’ speaking and writing skills. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and subjected to content analysis. The findings revealed the mismatches between teachers’ views and practices. It was found that the teachers did not adopt the assessor identity due to various barriers; namely, problems in teacher training and development, avoiding assessing productive skills, and the necessity for rater training. The findings suggest that the assessment literacy of the teachers needs to be improved. Therefore, pre-service teacher education programs should emphasise the identity development of language teachers as assessors. Additionally, in-service training is required for enhancing the assessment literacy of the language teachers.  

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Assessment literacy
• language assessment
• young learners
• assessing writing
• assessing speaking

İngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Çocuklara Yönelik Değerlendirme Okuryazarlığı: Küçük Ölçekli Bir Çalışmanın Bulguları

Öz

Dil becerilerinin değerlendirilmesi, öğretimin kalitesini kontrol etmek için çok önemlidir. Benzer şekilde, öğretmen değerlendirme okuryazarlığı sınıf değerlendirmelerinin kalitesine karar vermede hayati bir rol oynamaktadır. Değerlendirme zaman alıcı bir süreç olmasının yanı sıra, yabancı dilde konuşma ve yazmanın kendine has özellikleri ile değerlendirilmesi daha fazla zaman, çaba ve uzmanlık gerektirir. Ayrıca, çocukların dil üretimini değerlendirmek çok daha fazla dikkat gerektirir çünkü değerlendirme öğretimin bir parçasıdır ve bilişsel ve sosyo-kültürel temelleri vardır. Bu olgulara dayanarak, bu vaka çalışması, üç İngilizce öğretmeninin, sınıflarındaki çocukların konuşma ve yazma becerilerini nasıl değerlendirdiklerine ilişkin görüş ve uygulamalarını araştırmaktadır. Veriler yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yoluyla toplanmış ve içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Bulgular öğretmenlerin görüş ve uygulamaları arasında uyuşmazlıklar olduğunu göstermektedir. Öğretmenlerin, öğretmen yetiştirme ve geliştirmedeki problemler, konuşma ve yazma becerilerin değerlendirilmesinden kaçınılması ve puanlayıcı eğitimi gerekliliği gibi çeşitli nedenlerden dolayı değerlendirici kimliğini benimsemedikleri bulunmuştur. Bulgular öğretmenlerin değerlendirme okuryazarlığının iyileştirilmesi gerektiğini göstermektedir. Bu nedenle, öğretmen yetiştirme programları, yabancı dil öğretmenlerinin değerlendirici kimlik geliştirmeleri üzerinde durmalıdır. Ayrıca yabancı dil öğretmenlerinin değerlendirme okuryazarlıklarını geliştirmek için hizmet içi eğitimler yapılmalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Değerlendirme okuryazarlığı
• yabancı dilde değerlendirme
• genç öğrenenler
• yazmayı değerlendirme
• konuşmayı değerlendirme

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