1st Edition
Perspectives on Language Assessment Literacy Challenges for Improved Student Learning
Perspectives on Language Assessment Literacy describes how the elements of language assessment literacy can help teachers gather information about when and how to assess learners, and about using the appropriate assessment tools to interpret results in a fair way. It provides highlights from past and current research, descriptions of assessment processes that enhance LAL, case studies from classrooms, and suggestions for professional dialogue and collaboration.
This book will help to foster continuous learning, empower learners and teachers and make them more confident in their assessment tasks, and reassure decision makers that what is going on in assessment meets international benchmarks and standards. It addresses issues like concepts and challenges of assessment, the impacts of reflective feedback on assessment, the ontogenetic nature of assessment literacy, the reliability of classroom-based assessment, and interfaces between teaching and assessment. It fills this gap in the literature by addressing the current status and future challenges of language assessment literacy.
This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of language assessment literacy and English language teaching.
Contents
Part One: Language Assessment Literacy: Theoretical Foundations
- Language Assessment Literacy: Where to Go, Sahbi Hidri,
- Language Assessment Literacy: Concepts, Challenges and Prospects, Dina Tsagari,
- Traditional Assessment and Encouraging Alternative Assessment that Promotes Learning: Illustrations from EAP, Lee McCallum,
- Language Assessment Literacy: Ontogenetic and Phylogenetic Perspectives, Mojtaba Mohammadi, Reza Vahdani Sanavi, Iran; Reza Vahdani Sanavi,
- Enhancing Assessment Literacy through Feedback and Feedforward: A Reflective Practice in EFL Classroom, Dr. Junifer A. Abatayo,
- Using Checklists for Developing Student Teachers’ Language Assessment Literacy, Olga Ukrayinska,
- An Investigation into the Correlation between IETLS Test Preparation Courses and Writing Score: Students’ Reflective Journals, Fatema AL Awadi
- Language Assessment Literacy of Novice EFL Teachers: Perceptions, Experiences and Training, Aylin Sevimel-Sahin,
- Teachers' Assessment of Academic Writing: Implications for Language Assessment Literacy, Zulfiqar Ahmad,
- Reliability of Classroom-Based Assessment as Perceived by University Managers, Teachers and Students, Olga Kvasova & Vyacheslav Shovkovyi,
- To Teach Speaking or not to Teach? The Interfaces Between Teaching and Assessing Speaking in Bahrain, Diana Aljahromi,
- Planning for Positive Washback: The Case of a Listening Proficiency Test, Caroline Shackleton,
- Testing Abilities To Understand, not Ignorance or Intelligence: Social Interactive Assessment: Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask, Tim Murphey,
- Conclusion: Language Assessnent Literacy: The way forward, Sahbi Hidri
Part Two: Students’ Language Assessment Literacy
Part Three: Teachers’ Language Assessment Literacy
Part Four: Language Assessment Literacy: Interfaces between Teaching and Assessment
Biography
Sahbi Hidri is Assistant Professor at the Department of Education, Abu Dhabi Women’s Campus, HCT, UAE. His interests include curriculum design, assessment, psychometrics, standard-setting, test mapping and benchmarking, test theory, test specifications, computerized dynamic assessment, and language assessment literacy.
"This volume addresses an important and perennial problem in all of education—how teachers and students perceive, respond to, and make use (or not) of assessment. Assessment literacy is universal in that all systems and levels implement assessment to evaluate instruction, learning, or curriculum and, just as frequently, to inform improved teaching and learning; so language education, not just 2nd language, researchers will find the book useful.
Language assessment literacy is more complex in that language is not just an end but a tool by which all teaching and learning takes place. Being adept at using assessments to improve instruction and learning of languages is seemingly a neglected aspect of assessment in the world of language teaching, which apparently treats the summative test or exam as the norm for assessment.
The chapters in this volume help move language assessment more into multi-faceted data collection about competencies for the sake of improving the quality of learning and teaching. It’s nice to see language assessment research catching up with the world of classroom assessment theory and practice. The volume provides access to research and thinking about the topic from some relatively under-represented perspectives, including Turkey, Tunisia, Oman, Ukraine, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Japan; as well as Europe and the UK."
Prof. Gavin T L Brown, Associate Dean Postgraduate Research (ADPG),Director Quantitative Data Analysis and Research Unit, Faculty of Education & Social Work, The University of Auckland.
Language assessment literacy (LAL) is a critical topic in the field of language testing and assessment; see, for example, the recently established (April of 2019) Language Assessment Literacy Special Interest Group (LALSIG) within the International Language Testing Association. Perspectives on Language Assessment Literacy comprises chapters by authors from traditionally less represented regions of the world areas and thus represents an important contribution to the field. The volume also helps advance the scholarship of LAL. Authors pay special attention to how language assessment theory and practice can better synergize with teaching to improve students’ language learning and to better document students’ learning outcomes.
Micheline Chalhoub-Deville, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Research Methodology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
