A long walk to language assessment literacy: EFL teachers’ reflection on language assessment research and practice

Abstract

ABSTRACTLanguage assessment literacy (LAL), an important piece of language teacher education puzzle, has not fully fallen into place as many language teachers remain underprepared for bridging language assessment research-practice gaps in classrooms. Reflection, as another critical dimension of teachers’ professional development (PD), could assist the teachers in promoting their language assessment practice. Through employing asynchronous online discussions, reflective narratives, semi-structured interviews, and scenarios, this study documents how reflection on the practical relevance of recent assessment research helped the Iranian EFL teachers examine their current classroom assessment practices and reassess their planning of future language assessment actions. The findings demonstrated that teachers’ reflection on research-based theories (reflection-on-research) and language assessment practices (reflection-on-action) were compatible and guided their reflection on planning their future language assessment performance (reflection-for-action). Teachers were also motivated to provide practical suggestions for further development of their LAL.