The purpose of this study is to provide an overall picture regarding general and skill-based Language Assessment Knowledge (LAK) level of English teachers working in Turkish higher education context by using Language Assessment Knowledge Scale (LAKS) developed by Ölmezer-Öztürk and Aydın (2018). The scale including 60 items with four constructs was completed by 542 EFL teachers working at schools of foreign languages. The statistical findings revealed that in terms of LAK level of the teachers, the participants got, on average, 25 out of 60. The results of one sample t-test revealed that the score the teachers got from the scale was significantly lower than half of the total score. It was also found that the teachers were the most knowledgeable in assessing reading whereas they had the lowest score in assessing listening. Besides, except for being a testing office member, no significant impact of demographic features was found on LAK level of the participants. Finally, the present study offers several suggestions both for future studies and for policy makers to improve EFL teachers' language assessment literacy on assessing each skill.ÖZET: Bu çalışma İngilizce öğretmenlerinin dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgisi seviyelerini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Veriler 60 maddeli ve 4 boyutlu dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgisi ölçeği ile toplanmış ve bu ölçek yükseköğretimde çalışan 542 öğretmen tarafından cevaplanmıştır. Öğretmenlerin dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgi seviyeleri ile alakalı bulgular, katılımcıların ölçeğin genelinden 60 üzerinden 25 aldığını ve bu ortalamanın toplam puanın yarısından anlamlı derecede düşük olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bunun yanı sıra, öğretmenlerin dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgi düzeylerinin okuma becerisini ölçmede en yüksek, dinleme becerisini ölçmede ise en düşük olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ölçme değerlendirme ofisi çalışanı olup olmama haricinde hiçbir demografik değişkenin öğretmenlerin dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgisi üzerinde etkisinin olmadığı da çalışmanın istatistikî bulguları arasındadır. Çalışmanın sonuç bölümünde ise öğretmenlerin dilde ölçme değerlendirme okuryazarlıklarının geliştirilmesi için hem araştırma hem planlama açısından bazı önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Anahtar Sözcükler: Dilde ölçme değerlendirme bilgisi, İngilizce öğretmenleri, dilde ölçme değerlendirme okuryazarlığı This study is a condensed summary of the doctoral dissertation "Developing and validating language assessment knowledge scale (LAKS) and exploring the assessment knowledge of EFL teachers" written by Elçin ÖLMEZER-ÖZTÜRK.
Employing a qualitative research design, this study aims to investigate the opinions of EFL teachers regarding their language assessment knowledge and identify their general and skillbased needs in this domain. The participants included 11 EFL teachers who were determined through purposeful sampling and working at different universities in Turkish higher education setting. The data collection process included the participants' responses to seven open-ended questions that focused on their evaluations regarding the findings of a larger study investigating the language assessment knowledge of EFL teachers in Turkey and asked their needs in language testing and assessment. The data were analysed based on the qualitative content analysis by codelabelling and identifying the emerging themes. The findings indicated the insufficiency of trainings in both pre-service and in-service teacher education as the major reason of the low level in language assessment knowledge of EFL teachers. The teachers preferred hands-on trainings given by testing practitioners, and designed to improve them in assessing each skill separately. In the light of these findings, the study offers several suggestions for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs on language testing and assessment.
This study reports on the development and validation of Language Assessment Knowledge Scale, LAKS, which aims to measure teachers' language assessment knowledge. The initial development of the scale included a thorough literature review, creating an item pool, and an initial expert opinion stage. The later process, which led to the development of the final form, consisted of several detailed stages including organizing meetings with practitioners in the field, gathering opinions of experts in language testing and assessment, and piloting the scale. At the end of this long-lasting validation process, LAKS with 60 items and 4 constructs (assessing reading, assessing listening, assessing writing, and assessing speaking) was completed by 542 EFL teachers working in higher education context. The statistical procedures during the analysis process included second-order confirmatory factor analysis, and Cronbach alpha for the reliability. The findings revealed that LAKS had a good model-data fit with the obtained factor loads, and Cronbach alpha coefficients were satisfactory. Concluding that LAKS can serve as a valid and reliable instrument to measure language teachers' assessment knowledge, the study offers several suggestions for further research.
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