A Study Of The Correlation Between Multi-subject Formative Assessment And English Learning Self-efficacy Of Non-English Major Students

Formative assessment is an essential part of English teaching.It has been pointed out in the Interpretation of English Curriculum Standard that formative assessment is to make judgement on the language development status of students and their interest,attitude,participation in learning process,to try to have a comprehension of their English learning,so as to promote students’ learning enthusiasm and help teachers to improve English teaching.English learning self-efficacy is one of the most important affective factors which can strongly affect students’ English learning.It refers to students’ self evaluation or judgement in the English learning process on whether their learning ability or learning behaviors can complete English learning tasks or conduct specific learning activities well.Relevant studies have shown that the implementation of formative assessment can improve students’ enthusiasm and initiative in English learning,and enhance students’ English learning self-efficacy.The correlation between multi-subject formative assessment and English learning self-efficacy has been found.Therefore,the author still wants to study how the multi-subject formative assessment and English learning self-efficacy relate to each other among non-English majors,hoping to provide some suggestions for the college English teaching and learning.The present research is based on multiple intelligence theory and triadic reciprocal determinism,of which two questionnaires are conducted as research instruments and there are 198 non-English majors of freshmen and sophomores from Guangxi Normal University participant in it.The Multi-subject Formative Assessment Questionnaire is developed from Ma Hongjie’s questionnaire(2015).It consists of four dimensions,including teacher assessment,self-assessment,peer assessment,and the records of English online learning platform.The English Learning Self-efficacy Questionnaire is adapted from Xie Youru’s(2011)questionnaire.It also includes four components,covering the sense of self-capacity in English learning,the sense of self-effort in English learning,the sense of self-integration in English learning environment and the sense of self-control in English learning.The three research questions addressed in the present study are:(1)What is the overall situation of the application of multi-subject formative assessment in college English teaching?(2)What is the overall situation of learning self-efficacy in English among non-English majors?(3)Is there any correlation between multi-subject formative assessment and English self-efficacy among non-English majors? If yes,which evaluation subject(teacher,peer,self,online learning platform)is the most significant one to motivate the students’ self-efficacy in English learning? If no,why do they do not correlate with each other? Through the investigation,the author has found out the following results:(1)The overall situation of multi-subject formative assessment is at a medium level.In detail,the current use situation of teacher assessment is the best,which is followed by online learning platform and peer assessment,while the self-assessment comes to the bottom.(2)The overall situation of English learning self-efficacy among non-English majors is at a medium level.To be specific,the subjects’ sense of self-effort ranks the top,followed by the sense of self-control,self-capacity,and self-integration.(3)Multi-subject formative assessment and English learning self-efficacy among non-English majors are significantly correlated with each other,and self-assessment shows the highest relationship with English learning self-efficacy.On the basis of these findings,some implications are put forward for teachers and students of college English to improve the formative assessment and students’ learning self-efficacy.For teachers,they should pay more attention to the average and under developed students,give more guidance to students on self-assessment to develop students’ autonomous learning ability,trigger students’ intrinsic motivation and learning interest,train students to use suitable learning strategies,and enrich the learning sources on the English learning platform.For students,they are supposed to have more communication with peers to develop cooperative learning ability and form the good habit of making study plans and reflecting their learning process.