Abstract
The aim of this study is to find out the beliefs of the foreign language teachers about the ways and types of assessment tools, assessment activities and exercises used for 4th grade-EFL students in Turkey, Italy and Finland. A total of 170 English language teachers (89 in Turkey, 40 in Italy and 41 in Finland) constituted the sample of the study. For data collection, a questionnaire with two parts was used. The quantitative data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and one-way ANOVA. The results of the study revealed important points about assessing foreign language skills at primary school level. Turkish, Italian and Finnish teachers believed that more student-centered and formative-based assessment procedures should be used for 4th grade-students who learn English as a foreign language. The results also showed that teachers’ beliefs about the types of assessment, the content/skills-focus and the need for different kinds of exercises to assess 4th-graders did not differ significantly in terms of the country. However, teachers’ general beliefs about the assessment of 4th-grade students’ foreign language differed significantly in terms of the country. The post-hoc analysis showed that Italian teachers’ general beliefs about the assessment procedures for 4th grade students’ foreign language was significantly higher than Finnish and Turkish teachers’ general beliefs.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0961/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>
Highlights
Turkish teachers agreed that performance based – tests and oral interviews as assessment tools; speaking skills, listening skills, lexis, reading skills and pronunciation as content / skills in assessment; and audio material, matching, oral description of picture, role playing, making a dialogue, comprehension questions about a short test, filling gaps as the kinds of assessment were needed to be used at 4th grade language classes
Finnish teachers agreed that self-assessment, teacher own-made paper and pencil test and oral interview as assessment tools; lexis, listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills as content / skill – focus in assessment; and audio materials, students’ creation of their own sentences /texts, comprehension questions about a short test, matching and writing words, short texts, filling gaps and grammatical activities were needed to be used at 4th grade language classes
1) The highest belief score about the types of assessment to be used for 4th grade students for Turkish teachers was related with the item of “performance-based test”, for Italian teachers was related with the item of “oral interview”, and for Finnish teachers was related with the item of “my own-made paper and pencil test” and “self-assessment”
Summary
Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) at primary school level has gained importance in Turkey as it has all around the world. With the recent changes in the Turkish educational system (4+4+4), English language lesson has become mandatory for 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades at primary schools. Previous studies in Turkey show that there is a program suggested by authorities for schools, teachers still use traditional methods like pen and paper tests to assess their students; self-assessment is not applied at schools and the portfolio assessment is still being neglected by the teachers (Kırkgöz & Ağçam, 2012; Öz, 2014; Tatlı, 2014). In the studies from different parts of the world, the results indicate that in the assessment of young learners’ foreign language competence, traditional written–oral assessment by numerical grades is still carried out
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