Uncovering the Reasons of EFL Teachers’ Unwillingness and Demotivation towards Being More Assessment Literate

Öz

The current study investigates the reasons of EFL teachers’ unwillingness and demotivation towards being more assessment literate. 19 EFL teachers working in the preparatory programs of various state universities took part in the study, and the data were collected via semi-structured interviews. Those 19 teachers were deliberately chosen from 27 teachers based on their negative utterances towards being more assessment literate in relation to the aim of the current study. The data obtained from the utterances of the participants with respect to two interview questions were transcribed, coded and labelled according to the recurrent and common themes according to the qualitative content scheme of Creswell (2012). The findings revealed that why the participating teachers were unwilling and demotivated to be more assessment literate resulted from five factors; a) seeing language assessment as an extra burden, b) the presence of testing office and materials, c) language assessment as an anxiety-provoking factor, d) institutional factors and e) rarity of ways to improve oneself. Apart from shedding light on the unwillingness and demotivation of teachers to learn more about assessment, this study also comes up with implications for language teachers and research suggestions in relation to the findings of the study.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Assessment literacy
• Turkish EFL teachers
• Unwillingness
• Demotivation

Uncovering the Reasons of EFL Teachers’ Unwillingness and Demotivation towards Being More Assessment Literate

Abstract

The current study investigates the reasons of EFL teachers’ unwillingness and demotivation towards being more assessment literate. 19 EFL teachers working in the preparatory programs of various state universities took part in the study, and the data were collected via semi-structured interviews. Those 19 teachers were deliberately chosen from 27 teachers based on their negative utterances towards being more assessment literate in relation to the aim of the current study. The data obtained from the utterances of the participants with respect to two interview questions were transcribed, coded and labelled according to the recurrent and common themes according to the qualitative content scheme of Creswell (2012). The findings revealed that why the participating teachers were unwilling and demotivated to be more assessment literate resulted from five factors; a) seeing language assessment as an extra burden, b) the presence of testing office and materials, c) language assessment as an anxiety-provoking factor, d) institutional factors and e) rarity of ways to improve oneself. Apart from shedding light on the unwillingness and demotivation of teachers to learn more about assessment, this study also comes up with implications for language teachers and research suggestions in relation to the findings of the study.

Keywords

• Assessment literacy
• Turkish EFL teachers
• unwillingness
• demotivation

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