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Abstract
Epistemological beliefs—beliefs about the nature of knowledge, where it resides, and how knowledge is constructed and evaluated—have been the target of increased research interest lately. Heretofore, emphasis has been directed to language teaching/learning aspects and strategies. Language assessment practices have not yet received due attention in epistemic research literature. The current study examined the relationship between pre-service EFL teachers’ epistemological beliefs and their assessment orientations. Dimensions of epistemological beliefs were assessed via a questionnaire designed and validated by the researcher based on Schommer’s work. Two assessment orientations were examined including: (a) transmissive surface- processing orientation and (b) constructive deep-processing orientation. The study involved 114 preservice EFL teachers enrolled in the Professional Diploma in Teaching Program in the Abu Dhabi University, the United Arab Emirates. Results of the study showed that EFL teachers’ epistemological beliefs have a direct bearing on their assessment orientations and practices. EFL teachers with naive epistemological beliefs tended more to adopt surface-level assessment orientations whereas those with sophisticated epistemological beliefs showed more tendency to adopt deeper level approaches to assessment in language settings. Results are discussed in terms of backwash effects on foreign language instruction, curriculum development, and teacher education. Suggestions for further research are also discussed.Keywords: Epistemological beliefs, assessment orientations, surface processing, deep processing
Highlights
Foreign language learning settings at different schooling levels have increasingly been witnessing a paradigm shift towards constructivist, self-regulated leaning, and connectivist approaches
The current study focuses on personal epistemologies of language teachers - their beliefs regarding the nature of linguistic knowledge, where it resides, and how it should be taught and tested - as a potential factor behind teachers' resistance to the new assessment paradigm and their tendencies to adopt surface-level orientations in language assessment at the expense of deeper-level processing orientations, an area that has not heretofore been explored in assessment research literature
On the onset of the current study a basic question was raised regarding the reasons behind EFL teachers' tendencies to adopt surface-level processing orientations in language assessment at the expense of deeper-level constructivist ones
Summary
Foreign language learning settings at different schooling levels have increasingly been witnessing a paradigm shift towards constructivist, self-regulated leaning, and connectivist approaches. Self-construction of knowledge and understandings, problem solving on own initiative, and self-regulation of learning behaviors and contexts have all been the target of education in different settings. As communicative competence is the ultimate target in foreign language learning settings, as Liu and Zhang (2014), and Schell and Janicki (2013) argue, language learning should by no means be a process in which teachers transmit knowledge to students but one in which students construct their communicative competence on their own initiative. This, as Wang and Zhang (2012) state, requires that teachers' roles be changed from the traditional knowledge transmitters into guides and counselors helping students construct and assimilate new information
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