A Case Study On The Development Of Novice English Teachers’ Language Assessment Literacy

With the reform of language evaluation paradigms worldwide,China has also enacted relevant guidelines including English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022)and The Overall Plan of Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era,advocating the reform of assessment.Hence,Chinese EFL teachers are now faced with higher requirements for language assessment literacy.Previous studies on language assessment literacy have mainly focused on definitions and related constructs of,as well as empirical studies on in-service teachers’ language assessment literacy.After sorting out relevant studies,it is found that few studies focus on the group of novice English teachers and the complex development process of language assessment literacy.Therefore,research on the development of language assessment literacy of novice English teachers is of important value for both pre-service and in-service teacher training programs and teacher professional development.LAL is defined as teachers’ knowledge of language and language assessment,teachers’abilities to design,choose,perform,and adjust assessment tools,interpret and communicate assessment results,as well as teachers’ conceptions of major issues in language assessment.Based on the language assessment literacy model of Davies and Xu&Brown,and influencing factors by Xu&Brown and Yan et al.,this study constructed a theoretical framework of LAL development,and employed a qualitative case study method to explore potential changes in novice English teachers’ language assessment literacy and the influencing factors after a semester of teaching practice.The subjects of this study were two newly recruited junior middle school English teachers in a first-tier city.Case documents,semi-structured interviews and classroom observation were used as research tools.The main findings are as follows:After five months of formal work,the language assessment literacy of the two novice English teachers showed varying degrees of changes in terms of "knowledge","skill" and"conception".There was almost no change in their assessment knowledge,but their assessment skills had some progressive changes and their conceptions about assessment were deepened.In addition,the main factors affecting the development of novice teachers’ language assessment literacy include contextual factors and experience factors.The former mainly includes national assessment policies and testing culture as well as assessment requirements of institutions and schools,while the latter mainly includes assessment-related learning activities and practices.Based on the research findings,this research offers a few implications for the development of language teachers’ language assessment literacy.First,for the national and local educational authorities,it’s wise to provide a lenient assessment environment for language teachers.Second,for teacher educational institutes and middle schools,it’s advisable to offer a series of flexible training opportunities.Finally,for language teachers themselves,informal learning through Internet resources is also a good choice to improve themselves.