Teachers' Conceptions of Language Assessment: Theoretical Knowledge and Attitudinal Dimensions of Language Assessment Literacy Model

The contemporary era of learning-oriented assessment demands for teacher professional efforts to appropriately and accurately assess learners' attainment and use the assessment results for the enhancement of learning. In second/foreign language (L۲) teaching discipline, this has recently brought language assessment literacy (LAL) to the forefront, with an increasing emphasis on teachers' professionalism of this concept. Given this, L۲ teachers' mastery of practical and technical skills, as prescribed by the exiting LAL models, could not be entirely complete nor enhanced without their conceptions of assessment and beliefs system. To illuminate these dimensions, the present study aimed to develop and validate a LAL scale which could have relevance to L۲ localized contexts. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses of data from a sample of L۲ teachers (N=۲۱۳) provided empirical evidence supporting the utility and validity of the scale. The paper concludes with the importance of teachers' conceptions of LAL and implications of the findings.

Keywords:

Teacher Professionalism , Teacher Knowledge , Language Assessment Literacy , Attitudinal and Beliefs Dimensions