The Frequency Effect Of Formative Assessment Tests On Secondary Vocational School Students’ EFL Performances On Summative Test

On the basis of the frequency effect theory,this study takes formative assessment test as the evaluation method,aiming to examine the frequency effect of formative assessment tests on secondary vocational school students’ EFL performances on summative test.Specifically,this study aims to address three research questions:1)Does the increasing frequency of formative assessment tests affect the secondary vocational school students’ EFL performances on summative test.If yes,what are the observable changes?2)What are the possible differences between the students of different proficiency levels in terms of their performances on the summative English test?3)What are the students’ attitude toward the increasing frequency of formative assessment tests?In this study,the mixed design of quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted.In the part of the quantitative design,the participants were 90 students from three parallel classes of grade three with the same major in a secondary vocational school of Jiangsu province.One class as the Control Class（CC）and the other two as the Experimental Class（EC）:EC1,EC2.All the three classes received a pre-test to ensure that there was no significant difference in their linguistic proficiency,and post-test to see if there was any difference after they tested in different frequency.EC1 received a high frequency tests fortnightly,namely six times,EC2 received a low frequency of tests,namely three times,while CC merely participated in pre-test and post-test.SPSS 24.0 analyzed the collected data.In the part of the qualitative design,EC1 and EC2 students received a questionnaire.The data were then collected,analyzed and categorized to complement students’ attitude towards the increasing test frequency before and after the test.The data analysis generated the following major findings:Firstly,paired samples T-test indicates that test frequency effectively improved students’ summative English proficiency,in that,in comparisons with CC,both EC 1 and 2 performed better in the post-test after they went through three months of frequency intervention experiment.The multiple comparison show that EC1 class performed significantly better than the other two classes,and EC2 received the lower frequency class performed better than CC,verifying the hypothesis that test frequency increase would likely affect the students’ English proficiency.Secondly,the one-way ANOVA test showed that the variable of test frequency produced a positive effect on the students’ linguistic performance.After the intervention experiment of increased test frequency,EC2 students had performed relatively better on the post-test,while EC1 made no significant progress.Finally,the students generally held a positive attitude toward the increased frequency of tests.The questionnaire results indicate that EC1 and EC2 students showed greater confidence in their English learning along with the increased frequency of tests since their linguistic performances improved to a larger degree.This study may have some pedagogical implications.From the perspective of teachers,frequency effect theory applied in the formative assessment test,at least in terms of students’ deep understanding of language points,which will be conducive to students’ long-term English learning.From the perspective of students,frequent tests may help them to locate their position in the process of EFL learning,find out their own shortcomings and adopt themselves to the increased tests.To the secondary vocational students,such a method is particularly effective.