The Development of Sustainable Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of the English Language Program in South Korea

Sun-Joo Chung,Lee-Jin Choi

doi:10.3390/su13084499

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to educational systems around the world. In particular, language learning environments being impacted by the pandemic has resulted in a shift from traditional in-person to online language teaching. This paper examines the case of an English language program in South Korea to investigate how the sudden transition to online language teaching has influenced language instructors’ teaching and assessment practice. The current study also examines the level of satisfaction of instructors and students with the changing form of English language teaching and assessment practices. Results showed that a professional learning community was formed by instructors to engage in regular communication as an attempt to develop new forms of assessment practices that were process-oriented and formative. Instructors also assigned multimodal projects to promote sustainable assessments where students could actively utilize target language forms and structures. Students were highly satisfied with new forms of language assessment practices, whereas instructors’ level of satisfaction towards their language assessment practices were somewhat low. Findings provided educators with language assessment suggestions that can offer language instructors ideas to deliver more creative and sustainable language assessment strategies that can promote self-regulated learning and sustainable development.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to educational systems around the world, from unplanned school closures and home confinement to the abrupt transition to online learning
Focusing on the case of an English language program offered by a private South Korean university, this paper investigates aspects of how this sudden transition to online language teaching has influenced language instructors’ teaching and assessment practices
In terms of aligning instruction to assessment, “continuity seems to be the strongest predictor of final grades . . . and it lends support to most instructors’ intuition that among all types of online learning behaviors, engaging with a course on a reliable and regular basis, especially in blended language courses, is what accounts for successful learning in the course” (Rubio et al [46], p. 245)

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to educational systems around the world, from unplanned school closures and home confinement to the abrupt transition to online learning. Recent studies on emergency online language teaching have provided various testimonials on how higher education language programs have swiftly moved from traditional to online teaching (e.g., Gacs et al [1] and Ross and DiSalvo [2]), investigated how the form of language instruction has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Moorhouse [3] and Moser et al [4]), and studied stakeholder perceptions of emergency online learning Park and Chung [6]) Many of these studies have, for the most part, echoed promising experiences found among stakeholders, along with meaningful teaching and learning results experienced within their programs. Many of these studies have, for the most part, echoed promising experiences found among stakeholders, along with meaningful teaching and learning results experienced within their programs. 4.0/).

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