| As China’s influence in the world grows,more and more countries are incorporating Chinese language classes into their primary and secondary school curricula.The number of schools offering Chinese language classes in the UK is increasing year on year.In Chinese language classes,assessment methods are becoming increasingly important.For a long time,summative assessment has been dominant,but this type of assessment has its drawbacks,affecting the improvement of students’ Chinese language skills and frustrating their confidence in learning Chinese.In contrast,formative assessment is a form of evaluation guided by theories of multiple intelligence,constructivist views of learning,theories of motivation and other pedagogical theories.This type of assessment is an evaluation in the process of education and learning,aiming to help students improve their academic standards and skills through continuous feedback and guidance.Formative assessment has been well received in primary and secondary school classrooms in China and in Chinese language classrooms abroad.The article takes Year 7 students in Bay house school,a state junior school in the UK,as the subject of the study,and conducts a formative assessment study in an integrated Chinese language class.The study lasted for four months and consisted of three stages.It explored the impact of formative assessment on students’ learning of Chinese by recording different assessment methods such as students’ attendance,classroom performance,unit test results,final examination results,students’ self-assessment and teachers’ assessment.The experimental results show that this type of assessment can provide students with timely feedback on problems that arise in the learning process,and students can pay attention to their learning outcomes in time,gain an in-depth understanding of themselves and develop good habits of self-monitoring.At the same time,formative assessment can help students focus their attention,increase classroom participation and motivate them to learn.In addition,formative assessment can increase the trust between teachers and students,and teachers are able to identify problems and adjust their teaching in a timely manner in their records of students’ assessments,so that teaching and learning can grow together.Through the application of formative assessment in a comprehensive Chinese language class in a UK junior secondary school,it was found that this type of assessment has its advantages and disadvantages.The advantages of formative assessment are that it provides a more comprehensive assessment for students,can better motivate and interest students in learning,and at the same time can better meet the needs of individualised teaching and learning and promote interaction and collaboration between teachers and students.However,formative assessment also has its shortcomings: it requires more time and resources than summative assessment,the criteria for assessment are not clear enough,and the results are limited by the teacher’s knowledge and experience,which may not be objective enough and may even affect students’ emotions.The article concludes by combining the experimental findings with the literature and making some specific suggestions for teachers and students who apply formative assessment,in order to provide a kind of reference for other teachers of Chinese as a foreign language when conducting Chinese language teaching assessment. |
