Teaching EFL to children: reflections on (future) teachers’ language assessment literacy

Abstract

This article presents some reflections on the language assessment literacy of seven EFL undergraduates and one graduate teaching English to children in a university research project. The data were collected in a focus group and socio-discursively analyzed with the concept of voices underlying their answers. The voices identified were predominantly academic as the participants mirrored the knowledge and the discourse they have (had) contact with at the university. This showed full or partial appropriation of such discourses, indicating a language assessment literacy process going on. The findings highlight the tensions between the different kinds of knowledge that should be dealt with in language teacher education and the demands posed by the challenge of assessing children learning languages to the extent that they evidence problems that stem from lack of appropriate literacy assessment for this context. This is definitely a huge challenge in Brazil, as well as in many other places in the world, where undergraduate language courses have not been preparing future teachers to work with assessment.

Fluency in Language Assessment Literacy: A Literature Review

“…It involves a series of skills and knowledge that allow educators to design and implement effective assessment tools to measure language proficiency and learning outcomes. This includes the ability to understand and apply different assessment methods, interpret assessment results, and make data-driven decisions to improve language teaching and learning (Tonelli & Quevedo Camargo, 2018). The process of language assessment literacy is ongoing, involving the appropriation of relevant discourses and the continuous development of teachers' assessment competencies.…”

Rolling Out the Red Carpet: A Critique of Neoliberal Motivations Orienting the Promotion of Public Bilingual Schools to Young Learners in Brazil

“…It is about speaking Portuguese, which is the first language, and English, which has been labelled by Brazilian applied linguists researching English Language Education of young learners with various adjectives, that is, foreign (e.g. Malta, 2020;Tonelli, 2018), additional (e.g. Kawachi-Furlan; Tonelli, 2021), second (e.g.…”

Razões Para Avaliar Crianças Como Aprendizes De Línguas Estrangeiras

“…ISSN 1984-6576. E-202033 2 ensino de Línguas Estrangeiras para Crianças (doravante LEC) (TONELLI; QUEVEDO-CAMARGO, 2018;SHIN;CRANDALL, 2014), tendo em vista o interesse que os pais ou responsáveis têm por melhores oportunidades para seus filhos.…”

“…Apesar desse crescimentoe justamente pelo fato de ele ser recente -, o ensino de LEC no Brasil sente-se da falta de regulamentações específicas (no caso da Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental 1) (ÁVILA; TONELLI, 2018) e da existência de imensas lacunas na formação inicial e continuada de professores de língua estrangeira para o exercício da docência a crianças (TONELLI; QUEVEDO-CAMARGO, 2018). Segundo Chaguri e Tonelli (2019, p. 288):…”