Investigating EFL Teachers’ Attitudes toward Alternative Assessment

Öz

Over the last decades, the widespread view that English is now a lingua franca has increased the prominence of English language teaching methodology and has led to the continuous revision and amendment of pedagogical issues such as language teaching and learning along with testing and assessment. To that end, there has been a considerable emphasis on the alignment of assessment practices with language teaching and learning practices. Accordingly, language assessment, more specifically, alternative assessment has been one of the critical issues that have received much attention in the field of language teaching. This current study, which was conducted quantitatively and qualitatively has aimed to explore the attitudes of teachers of English as a foreign language towards AA methods. The participants of the study, 137 EFL teachers who work in the state primary, secondary and high schools in the province of Samsun in Türkiye, responded to the 5-Likert scale with 15 items developed by İzci et al (2014) in the survey part of the study. For the qualitative phase of the study, 16 teachers consented to be interviewed to answer four open-ended questions. The findings of the study revealed that , in general, the EFL teachers held a positive view on alternative assessment methods. Other findings also showed that their attitudes varied significantly in favour of the teachers who received inservice training, and that the participants also had the view that teachers often face the challenges which impede the use of alternative assessment tools and/or that there are factors which prevent them from implementing these methods efficiently.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• assessment
• language assessment
• alternative assessment
• teachers'attitudes
• EFL context

İngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Alternatif Değerlendirmeye Yönelik Tutumlarının Araştırılması

Öz

Son yıllarda İngilizcenin artık ortak bir dil olduğu görüşünün yaygınlaşması, İngilizce dil öğretim yöntemlerinin önemini artırmış ve dil öğretimi ve öğrenimi ile ölçme ve değerlendirme gibi pedagojik konuların sürekli olarak gözden geçirilmesine ve değiştirilmesine yol açmıştır. Bu amaçla değerlendirme uygulamalarının dil öğretimi ve öğrenim uygulamalarıyla uyumlu hale getirilmesine önemli ölçüde vurgu yapılmaktadır. Bu bağlamda dil değerlendirmesi, daha özel olarak alternatif değerlendirme, dil öğretimi alanında en çok ilgi gören çok önemli konulardan biri olmuştur. Nicel ve nitel olarak yürütülen bu mevcut çalışma, yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğretmenlerinin alternatif değerlendirme yöntemlerine yönelik tutumlarını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın katılımcıları, Türkiye'nin Samsun ilindeki devlet ilkokul, ortaokul ve liselerinde görev yapan 137 İngilizce öğretmenidir. Katılımcılar, çalışmanın anket kısmında İzci ve arkadaşları (2014) tarafından geliştirilen 15 maddelik 5'li Likert ölçeğine yanıt vermişlerdir. Çalışmanın nitel aşaması için 16 öğretmen gönüllü olarak dört açık uçlu soruyu yanıtlamak üzere görüşmeyi kabul etti. Çalışmanın bulguları, genel olarak EFL öğretmenlerinin alternatif değerlendirme yöntemlerine olumlu bir bakış açısına sahip olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Diğer bulgular, hizmet içi eğitim alan öğretmenlerin tutumlarının lehine anlamlı düzeyde farklılaştığını, ayrıca öğretmenlerin alternatif değerlendirme araçlarının kullanımını engelleyen zorluklarla sıklıkla karşılaştıklarını ve/veya bu yöntemleri etkili bir şekilde uygulamalarını engelleyen faktörlerin bulunduğunu düşündüklerini göstermiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• değerlendirme
• dil değerlendirmesi
• alternatif değerlendirme
• öğretmen tutumları

Kaynakça

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