Abstract
With the launch of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has introduced a pilot English curriculum for the primary educational level, which aims to help primary school pupils achieve level A1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The implementation of the new curriculum requires major change in teaching methodology, teaching materials and classroom assessment. A new textbook series has also been developed in alignment with the pilot curriculum. Methodology training workshops have been provided so as to facilitate the process of implementing the new curriculum and textbooks. Classroom assessment training curriculum developed in accordance with the pilot curriculum has been delivered to key primary English language teachers. This study reports our investigation into changes teachers have made in their assessment practice on the implementation of the pilot primary English language curriculum. The research involves 67 teachers of primary schools implementing the new curriculum. Data are collected by means of teachers’ in-depth interview and assessment samples. The findings have shown that the investigated teachers have made effort to change their assessment practice so as to facilitate the new curriculum. However, there are still a number of contextual and perceptual factors interfering with the process of changing the assessment practice.
Highlights
The same assessment practice is required for both groups of students, those learning 4 x 35-minute periods a week with the pilot textbook series and those learning 2 or 3 x 35-minute periods a week with books published by other publishers, commonly Let’s go and Family and Friends by Oxford University Press
The preliminary findings of the present study have shown major issues in the process of bringing evaluation, assessment policy and language assessment practices into alignment
In countries like Vietnam, where the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) takes full responsibility for all of the planning, designing the curriculum and producing or choosing the instructional materials as well as providing assessment policy, and even summative large-scale tests, research should be conducted on a national scale to explore further and gather information about teachers’ perceptions of assessment and their practice in addition to the impact of summative assessment on learners, especially on young language learners
Summary
The following principles have been generally agreed in literature on assessing young language learners [1,2,3,4]. First and foremost, language assessment needs to be oriented towards age-related abilities. Language assessment needs to cater all levels of achievement, allowing flexibility in evaluation and passes for all at different levels. Topics and input provided in language assessment should be associated with familiar, simple subjects or topics used in everyday communication to make young language learners feel “psychologically safe” and comfortable. Language assessment should focus on what young language learners can do, rather on what they cannot do so as to encourage them to learn, and feel successful and motivated. Support needs to be made available so as to encourage young language learners to complete language assessment
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