A Survey Of The Language Assessment Literacy Of English Teachers In Senior High Schools In The Sino-Vietnamese Border Areas In Guangxi

Assessment for learning plays an important role in language learning.The 2017 edition of the English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(hereinafter referred to as the Curriculum Standard)requires English teachers to conduct teaching assessment based on the Core Competences of the English subject and play the role of assessment in promoting learning.This suggestion requires that English teachers have good Language Assessment Literacy(LAL).In recent years,study subjects of LAL were mainly focused on foreign language teachers of higher education.Few English teachers in secondary schools were included.Few of these studies take English teachers in senior high schools in Guangxi border areas as the direct survey subjects.In order to stimulate students’ learning and improve professional specialty of English teachers in senior high schools in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas of Guangxi,it’s necessary to know the LAL of English teachers in the unique multi-foreign language environment.Based on the theories of developmental assessment,teacher’s professional development and multiple intelligence,referring to the teaching assessment suggestions in the 2017 Curriculum Standard and the definition of LAL by language assessment authorities,this study aims to explore the current situation of English teachers’ LAL from three dimensions: teachers’ recognition of language assessment principles,assessment knowledge and assessment skills.In this study,195 senior high school English teachers were involved in the on-line questionnaire survey and 13 of them were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone.Based on this,the study will try to answer the following four questions:1.What’s the degree of English teachers’ recognition of language assessment principle?2.How well do English teachers understand language assessment knowledge?3.What’s the level of English teachers’ assessment skill?(1)How well do English teachers use language assessment knowledge?(2)What language assessment methods do English teachers use in daily assessment?4.Are there any differences in the demographic variables of English teachers’ LAL?The data collected in the study was analyzed by SPSS 22.0,SPSSAU and Excel 2010.The major findings are as follows:(1)Most English teachers take good attitude towards teaching assessment and have a high degree of recognition of the principles of language assessment;(2)Teachers’ basic language assessment knowledge is weak and the degree of understanding is uneven.Most English teachers know much more ethical knowledge than basic language assessment knowledge,such as reliability,validity,and terms of score interpretation like percentage and standard deviation;(3)Teachers’ language assessment skills are moderately low and still need to be strengthened.Teachers can pay attention to the validity and the fairness of assessment,but they do not highlight students as the main subjects in daily assessment and seldom use various methods.Traditional paper-and-pencil tests are still used as the main assessment methods,other assessment methods such as self-assessment,peer assessment,or portfolios have low usage rates;(4)English teachers’ LAL is significantly different in educational background and professional title,it presents consistency in other variables,such as gender,teaching age,major and different language assessment training experiences.Besides,the author analyzes the causes,then provides some suggestions for improving LAL level.For example,teachers make good use of online and offline resource to get assessment knowledge,use feedback information in classroom assessment to make reflection to promote assessment skills.