Foreign Language Teachers’ Attitude toward Authentic Assessment in Language

Abstract

Problem Statement: A rapidly increasing interest has been observed in finding alternatives to traditional forms of assessment in education. For at least three decades, teachers, curriculum developers and program administrators have been studying hard to identify appropriate procedures to assess the knowledge and abilities of students. The term “authentic assessment” has emerged from this need in the field of education, and can be described as “the multiple forms of assessment that reflect student learning, achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally-relevant classroom activities” (O’Malley and Valdez Pierce, 1996, p. 4). Given that the topic is a relatively new and challenging one, it has been observed that to examine language teachers’ perceptions and attitude toward authentic assessment is quite important. Purpose of Study: In this study, a questionnaire which aims to determine the ideas and opinions of English language instructors regarding the use of authentic assessment has been applied and the results of the study have been presented and discussed. Method: In order to find answers to the research question “What are the language teaching instructors’ ideas and attitude toward authentic assessment in language teaching classes?”, a questionnaire which is called “Authentic Assessment Inventory for Goal Setting”(O’Malley and Valdez; 1992) has been used in this study. This inventory has been applied to 37 randomly-selected instructors from Atilim University Preparatory School of English. The inventory consists of 15 questions that can be answered with three alternatives, mainly, 1 = not at all, 2 = somewhat, 3 = a great deal. Findings: Answers to the questions in the inventory where handled under two main categories: at what point the instructors are now, and where they wish to be concerning the issue of authentic assessment. Conclusion and Recommendations: As a concluding remark for the study, it will be pedagogically useful to attach more importance to authentic assessment in curriculum and educational programs of language teaching. Additionally, it is recommended that more scientific research be conducted about authentic assessment, in particular on goal-setting, educational planning and program development.