ESP Teachers' Language Assessment Literacy and their Perception of Formative Classroom Assessment in Online Courses

This study is a mixed-methods parallel design aiming at exploring the perception of ۴۹ ESP teachers toward formative classroom assessment with regard to their language assessment literacy (LAL) in Iran within the theoretical framework of Hay and Penney (۲۰۱۳). The data were collected through an online semi-structured interview and a questionnaire, extracted from Shahzamani and Tahririan's (۲۰۲۱) questionnaire, consisting of ۱۳ Likert items and ۹ open-ended questions which were validated for this study through confirmatory factor analysis. The results of a Chi-square test on the Likert items showed a significant difference between the participant’s responses to each item which revealed an overall tendency of the ESP teachers toward employing formative assessment as an efficient way for evaluating their own teaching efficacy, the quality of the teaching materials, and their students' progress. The results also revealed that the two features of ۱) ability to assess learners based on cultural-related issues in a certain context, and ۲) ability to design suitable assessment methods for multilevel ESP classes should be added to the components of LAL in the existing literature. The results have implications for teacher educators to consider these two features in teacher education programs. Also, academic authorities are to notice that reliance on summative assessment and evaluation merely based on final exam scores are not appreciated by most ESP teachers.          

Keywords:

Language assessment literacy , ESP assessment patterns , formative classroom assessment , culturally appropriate assessment , multilevel classroom assessment