Language teachers’ writing assessment and feedback practices in English for academic purposes (EAP) classes at university level in Pakistan
Creators: name: Shahzadi, Amina
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 470306
subject: English as a second language

description: Language assessment is a key element of language teaching as it can be used as a ‘bridge’ between teaching and learning in the classroom (Colby-Kelly &amp; Turner, 2007) to motivate students and also to enhance learning (Davison, 2019; Leung et al., 2018). Classroom-based language assessment (CBLA) is growing as an important area of research, however, it is still not well-developed field and is relatively under-researched (Tsagari, Csépes, 2011). There is a lack of CBLA research in different contexts such as English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and specifically in English for academic Purposes (EAP) contexts. This study examines teachers’ formative classroom assessment practices in EAP and EMI contexts that remain underexplored in the literature.

During the last decade, different studies have been conducted to explore the formative use of classroom-based language assessment practices focusing mainly on writing skills in different ESL/EFL (English as a second language/English as a foreign language) contexts (e.g. Afitska, 2014; Cheng et al.,2004; Crusan et al., 2016; Gonzales, 2012; Khongput, 2014). Overall, the CBLA findings suggest that there is a growing emphasis on teachers’ responsibility as assessors (Looney et al., 2018; Soodmand Afshar &amp; Ranjbar, 2021) and requires them to enhance their language assessment literacy (LAL) for effective assessment practices (Fulcher, 2012; Giraldo, 2021; Harding &amp; Kremmel, 2016; Tsagari, 2020) which calls for professional development training to keep the teachers informed about the developments in language assessment (Levi &amp; Inbar-Lourie, 2020, Vogt et al., 2020).

In view of these findings, although EMI research is emerging, EAP teachers’ writing assessment and feedback practices in EMI has not yet been extensively researched. Furthermore, there is no substantial research conducted to explore language teachers’ assessment practices in Pakistan, where English is the medium of instruction, which would deepen the understanding of teachers’ use of effective formative assessment at university level in this context with a view to identifying language teacher-assessor training needs. So, the study motivation was to highlight the writing assessment as well as feedback practices of EAP teachers in an EMI university in Pakistan. Furthermore, it anticipated identifying assessment needs of the university English language teachers to help design language assessment literacy programs for language teachers in Pakistan. Therefore, to address this research gap, the study explored the university English language teachers’ language assessment beliefs, their language assessment literacy (assessment knowledge 1 and training needs) and their assessment and feedback practices in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing classrooms in Pakistan.

Using a case study approach, 26 teacher and 102 student questionnaires, 12 teacher interviews, 20 classroom observations and documents consisting of 60 writing scripts of students marked by their teachers and course outlines of ELT Courses offered at three educational institutes of Pakistan were gathered to explore teachers’ language assessment literacy, their language assessment beliefs and their assessment and feedback practices in EAP writing classroom to form a deep understanding of ‘what teachers do’, ‘why teachers do’ and ‘how teachers do’ when assessing their students’ written work in an EMI context at the University of Education (UE), Lahore. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data from questionnaire and thematic content analysis were used to analyse the qualitative data.

The findings of the study reveal that English teachers at UE are academically qualified and are theoretically aware of different assessment concepts. However, they lack sufficient professional training in language assessment. Linking all the relevant data enabled a deeper understanding of teachers’ formative and feedback practices and draw conclusions about their language assessment training needs. Surprisingly, despite teachers having positive beliefs about the effectiveness of different formative assessment strategies such as students’ self- and peer-assessment, and formative feedback, teacher attitudes towards using these strategies in EAP writing classrooms are not positive, as they consider it ‘boring’, and ‘least attractive’ to assess students’ writing. The discussion further highlights the lack of consistency between teachers’ beliefs about formative assessment and their actual assessment practices in EAP classrooms. In line with the findings of previous research in different language teaching contexts, it was found that teachers do not provide sufficient self- and peer- assessment opportunities to students in EAP writing classrooms at UE.

The participant teachers mostly use total scores to respond to students writing. Sometimes teachers also used verbal feedback and written commentary to provide feedback. As it has been concluded in other studies, English teachers at UE do not provide timely, specific and targeted feedback to many of the students on their writing in the classroom. Furthermore, as previous CBLA research highlighted the influence of internal and external factors, the study also identified different internal factors for lack of consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices such as teachers’ experience, their assessment training and different contextual factors such as number of students in each class, students with different English language proficiency, teachers’ workload 2 and traditional teacher-centred classroom culture in Pakistan influence teachers’ assessment and feedback practices in EAP writing classrooms at UE. The findings have implications for language teachers, policy makers, ELT program developers and trainers. The study contributes empirical insights into the complexities of Pakistani EAP EMI context that are reflected in the differences between what teachers can do, what they want to do, what they think they do and what they actually do regarding writing assessment practices in EAP classroom. The information gathered from linking quantitative and qualitative data is valuable for policy makers in HEC (Higher Education Commission of Pakistan) and University administration to understand the challenges teachers face in the language classroom and the skills they need to develop for effective formative classroom assessment which can be used to design relevant language assessment training programs for the teachers to support students’ learning as students are the main stake holders of assessment in language classroom.