How literate are prospective English teachers in language assessment? A Case Just Before Entering the Teaching Profession

Abstract

Assessment is an essential component of all learning and teaching endeavors. It is only possible to consider education by considering assessment and evaluation. Training prospective teachers in assessment is of primary importance in teacher education. This study employs case study methodology to uncover (a) how literate prospective English teachers in language assessment based on scenarios that include some instances of assessment applications, (b) how they perceive their knowledge of language assessment, and (c) how they apply their knowledge when developing language tests. The participants are the fourth-year prospective English teachers who took the course Testing and Evaluation in ELT. The data for the study were collected through open-ended questionnaires and scenarios designed to see how successfully the participant transferred their knowledge into practice. The results reveal that assessment courses fail to achieve their objectives in the practical sense. Additionally, the inability to obtain high levels of language assessment literacy might result from cognitive errors that individuals have developed throughout their education.

Keywords

• English language teaching
• language assessment literacy
• language assessment
• prospective English teachers

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