PRE-SERVICE ELT TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT IN EMERGENCY DISTANCE EDUCATION

Abstract

In the realm of education, and especially in English language teaching (ELT) field, the relationship between teaching strategies and the assessment process is very close. Like instructional strategies, current events like COVID-19 may have an immediate impact on assessment procedures. In order to better understand how traditional and alternative assessment types in emergency distance education relate to in-class instruction, this research sought to interview pre-service language teachers. Students from the ELT department in the 2nd (N: 60) and 4th (N: 66) grades participated in the study. A semi-structured interview was used in this mix-type study to triangulate the quantitative data after the participants completed a Likert-type questionnaire. Four key themes emerged from the independent sample t-test and content analysis: (a) Pre-service teachers for the 2nd and 4th grades differed significantly, and students in the latter grade are more accustomed to using alternative assessment methods; (b) Since 2nd grader students were largely unfamiliar with alternative assessment, there were statistical differences in the perspectives on traditional assessment; (c) 4th grade pre-service teachers favored skill-based assessment more than 2nd grade students; and (d) when it came to the integration of alternative and traditional assessment, there was no discernible difference between the students. In light of the study findings, it was proposed that alternative assessment types be included into the present ELT curriculum at earlier grade levels.