Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: How formative assessment supports students' self-regulation in English language learning

Abstract

Abstract: This paper addresses how formative assessment can support secondary students' self-regulated learning in English language learning. Self-regulated learning is essential for lifelong learning because it allows students to construct knowledge by identifying their learning goals, self-managing their learning process and self-evaluating their performance against goals. Although a consensus can be found in the literature that formative assessment has significant potential for supporting self-regulated learning among students, how such potential can be afforded through teachers' practices of formative assessment in English language classrooms remains under-explored. In this paper, findings from classroom observations and interviews with two teachers and 16 students in a foreign language secondary school are reported. The findings reveal that under the guidance of their teachers, the participants engaged in formative assessment in a proactive manner and appeared to be emerging as self-regulated learners. The students perceived the classroom formative assessment activities that they experienced and the feedback they received to be helpful in the development of their deep understanding and capability for self-regulation in English language learning.