Assessment Literacy and Assessment Practices of Teachers of English in a South-Asian Context: Issues and PossibleWashback

Abstract

Teachers of English are usually involved in setting and scoring assessments but their assessment literacy and assessment practices are rarely studied. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings of a study which was conducted with secondary level school teachers of English in Sri Lanka on their assessment literacy and assessment practices. The present study adopted a mixed-methods research design. The sample consisted of 150 teachers from different types of state and private schools in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire which consisted of both closed- and open-ended questions was administered to these teachers, and interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of teachers. Assessments set by these teachers were also studied. The findings revealed that teachers in the sample were literate about assessment principles to a fair extent. However, their application of that knowledge when designing and administering assessments was not so satisfactory. There were some teachers who had no training in assessment principles but were expected to design tests. The practices those untrained teachers adopt when setting assessments were also discovered through this study. The study revealed many factors that affect teachers’ choice of content, number of questions, testing techniques, and scoring methods.