Online Formative Assessment and Feedback Practices of ESL Teachers in India, Bangladesh and Nepal: A Multiple Case Study

Abstract

ESL/EFL teachers, especially those working in higher education, across the world were required to teach online after the spread on COVID-19. Many empirical studies have been conducted in the last 1 year to investigate various aspects of online teaching and learning of languages. However, online ESL teaching in South Asian contexts remains almost unexplored. This paper reports a multiple case study that aimed to bridge this gap and explore online formative assessment (FA) and feedback practices of three ESL teachers working in three universities in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The results indicate that all three teachers actively engaged their students in a variety of FA practices, although they did not use the obtained information from assessments properly and there remained many areas of improvement. Their feedback practices, which involved the integration of a few digital tools, were regular and student-friendly. The study is significant in that it is the first of its kind. Future researchers can conduct large scale studies to verify if the findings of the study are true for other university ESL teachers who are teaching online.