Language Assessment in English language teaching: A Washback of Indonesian Students’ Test in COVID 19 Situation

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to discover the lecturer’s perceptions of the English formative assessment through online classroom testing and to determine the washback of students’ formative assessments through online classroom tests in English language teaching. This research employed the qualitative method, specifically a case study as a research design. The participants involved an eleventh-grade English lecturer and 25 students University students who were selected purposively. Semi-structured interviews and the students’ open-ended questionnaires were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed qualitatively through Miles and Huberman’s procedures. Data analysis revealed that: (1) an eleventh grade English lecturer had positive perceptions concerning the formative assessment understanding and several strategies of follow-up actions through online classroom tests by giving some feedback to the students in comprehending the materials and test; (2) the washback of formative assessments through online classroom was dominated by more positive washbacks than negative washbacks in the language testing. The results of 60% students indicated that they tend to be relaxed to complete the online test, 48% students regarded that their English lecturer had reviewed all of the materials at the end of the unit, including the exercise in online test-taking preparation, and 44% students assumed that an English lecturer provided the feedback for improvement. Therefore, it can be concluded that an English lecturer’s perception was appropriate with the positive washbacks that were obtained in the formative assessment through online classroom by giving feedback for the students.