An investigation into the language assessment competence of pre service english teachers at a foreign language teacher training institution in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT COMPETENCE OF PRE- SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS AT A

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER TRAINING

INSTITUTION IN VIETNAM

Supervisor: Dương Thu Mai (Ph.D.) Student: Nguyễn Thị Liên Hương Student number: 16040590

Course: QH2016.F1.E2

HANOI – 2020

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU NĂNG LỰC KIỂM TRA ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA SINH VIÊN SƯ PHẠM TẠI MỘT CƠ SỞ ĐÀO TẠO GIÁO VIÊN NGOẠI NGỮ Ở VIỆT NAM

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Dương Thu Mai (Ph.D.) Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Liên Hương

MSSV: 16040590 Khóa: QH2016.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2020

Signature of Approval:

_ Supervisor’s Comments & Suggestions

_ _ _ _ _

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, class QH2016.F1.E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

_

Date

_

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Had it not been for the help of others, I would not have been able to completed this dissertation Therefore, I would like to take this chance to show my deepest appreciation to all the help that I received

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Duong Thu Mai, for her professional guidance, constructive advices, tolerance and encouragement Without her invaluable helps and feedbacks, this graduation paper could not have been completed

Secondly, I would like to express my special thanks to the lecturers of the course

“Language Assessment” and 225 senior teacher trainees who have taken the course at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam University – Hanoi for their enthusiastic participation in my research

Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to all my family members and friends for having been staying closely by my side Their unwavering and whole-hearted supports have been the principle source of encouragements for me to overcome any challenges

Hanoi, 2019

ABSTRACT

Assessment is vital in the language teaching and learning process.Therefore, it

is necessary for teachers to acquire language assessment competences (LAC), which can be considered the knowledge and skills of collecting data about students’ achievement and utilizing the assessment process to develop not only teacher’s instruction but also students’ learning Although there exists a decent number of studies about assessment competences internationally, there has been little to no research investigating that of Vietnamese teachers, especially the pre-service ones As a result, this research aims at scrutinizing the perception of pre-service teachers’ assessment literacy at a foreign language teacher training institution in Vietnam called “University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University Hanoi” The paper employs mixed methods design with questionnaires, educational text analysis and semi-structured interviews The findings revealed that the majority of participants felt more satisfied and confident with assessment sub-competences relating to assessment process However, this perception did not reflect the real practice Between assessing language components and assessing language skills, it was true that teacher trainees in ULIS believed that their practice of the former competency is more satisfactory Besides, they still faced numerous weaknesses as well as challenges during their practice of LAC both during and after the course

“Assessment Literacy” Several implications have been made to teacher trainers and educators in ULIS and other university in Vietnam

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACCEPTANCE PAGE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF TABLE vii

LIST OF FIGURE viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of research problem & questions 1

1.2 Scope of the research 2

1.3 Significance 3

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the paper 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 An overview of the field of language assessment and the concept of assessment competence 5

2.1.1 Definitions of assessment: 5

2.1.2 An overview of current educational assessment context 6

2.1.3 The concept of assessment competence in the current context 9

2.1.4 Position of assessment competence in teacher competence in different countries 10

2.2 Conceptualization of language assessment competence through time 12

2.2.1 Definition of language assessment: 12

2.2.2 Definitions of assessment competence through time and its classification 12

2.2.3 Conceptualizing language assessment competence: what the sub-competences are? 13

2.3 Conceptualizations and components of foreign language assessment competence in Vietnam 17

2.3.1 Sets of standards and regulations for conducting language assessment in

primary and high school assessment 17

2.3.3 Language assessment courses for pre-service teachers in Vietnam 23

2.3.4 Language assessment course in University of Languages and International Studies 24

2.4 Related studies globally and locally 27

2.4.1 Related studies about foreign language assessment competence globally 27

2.4.2 Related studies about foreign language assessment competence in Vietnam 29

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 31

3.1 Settings of the study 31

3.2 Sampling and participants 32

3.2.1 Research population: 32

3.2.2 Research participants: 32

3.3 Data collection 33

3.3.1 Data collection instruments 33

3.3.2 Questionnaire 33

3.3.3 Educational text analysis 38

3.3.4 Semi-structure interview 41

3.3.5 Data collection process 42

3.4 The data analysis process 44

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 46

4.1 Research question 1: What is ULIS pre-service English teachers’ perception of their assessment competence? 46

4.1.1 Perception of senior English teacher trainees about their own LAC in terms of individual competences: 46

4.1.2 Perception of students about their own LAC in terms of groups of competences (modules) 52

4.2 Research question 2: How was their assessment competence revealed in the required assessment tasks in their course? 54

4.2.1 Oral presentation: 54

4.2.2 Evaluative essay 57

4.3 Research question 3: What are students’ perceptions of the future challenges for these student teachers in and after the course? 64

4.3.1 Challenges during the course: 64

4.3.2 Challenges during the internship and part-time jobs 66

4.3.3 Challenges in the future in-service practices 68

4.4 Discussions of findings: 70

4.4.1 Perception and real practice of pre-service teachers’ assessment competence 70

4.4.2 Perceptions of pre-service teachers about challenges in assessment practice during and after the course 71

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 73

5.1 Major findings of the study 73

5.2 Pedagogical implications 74

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 75

REFERENCES 76

APPENDIX 80

Appendix 1: The adopted and modified version for the course “Language Assessment” 80

Appendix 2: Semi-structured interview questions 86

Appendix 3: Checklist for marking the oral presentation 87

Appendix 4: Checklist for marking the evaluative essay 87

LIST OF TABLE

Table 2a 13

Table 2b 15

Table 2c 19

Table 2d 26

Table 3a 34

Table 3b 35

Table 3c 39

Table 4a 47

Table 4b 49

Table 4c 52

Table 4d 55

Table 4e 58

Table 4f 60

Table 4g 61

Table 4h 69

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1 The interrelation among “curriculum”, “teaching” and “assessment” 6 Figure 2 Students’ scores in the oral presentation 55 Figure 3 Students’ scores of the evaluative essay 58

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEFR Common European Framework of Reference

LAC Language Assessment Competence

LAL Language Assessment Lietracy

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

ULIS University of Languages and International Studies

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter justifies the problem and reasons for this research to be conducted Moreover, three research questions, the scope, the significance, the method and the organization of the study will be presented

1.1 Statement of research problem & questions

Assessment comprises an integral part of teachers’ classroom practices (Earl, 2003) If assessment is conducted effectively, it can significantly improve learning and learner performance (Black & Wiliam 1998) As it is the responsibility of teachers to teach and conduct assessment, in the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in developing the professional knowledge and understanding of teachers in the field of educational assessment (Taylor, 2009) Such “individual’s understandings of the fundamental assessment concepts and procedures deemed likely to influence educational decisions” is defined as “assessment literacy” (Popham, 2009), which is going

to be correspondingly mentioned in this study by the term “assessment competence”

While numerous research papers have been conducted to investigate in-service teachers’ assessment competence in different countries like China (Lin & Su, 2015), Japan (Matsumoto et al., 2015), Turkey (Öz & Atay, 2017) and Iran (Ahmadi et al., 2019) They were all conducted to gain insights into the local standards of assessment literacy for teachers However, few have been carried out in Vietnam Moreover, none of them targeted at pre-service teachers – university students who are being trained to become proficient teachers in the future

This research, entitled “Investigation into the language assessment competence of pre-service English teachers in Vietnam” hopes to bridge this

gap to some extent Within the framework of this study, it seeks answer for the three following questions:

1 What is ULIS pre-service English teachers’ perception of their assessment competence?

2 How was their assessment competence revealed in the required assessment tasks in their course?

3 What are students’ perceptions of the future challenges for these student teachers in and after the course?

1.2 Scope of the research

As this research paper is an investigation into the language assessment competence of pre-service English teachers in Vietnam, its focus would be the perception of senior teacher trainees at University of Languages and International Studies (Vietnam National University Hanoi) of their own assessment competence after a specific course called “Language Assessment” and how their real competence reflected through some required tasks of that course

In terms of literature scope, as scholars in language assessment are still debating about the boundaries of “language assessment competence”, there exists numerous different frameworks for this concept worldwide However, after analysis into a large number of studies and theories, in the scope of this study, the researcher chooses to integrate the framework by Inbar-Lourie with the course content in careful consideration to the documents about teacher assessment competences published by Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training

Lastly, mixed methods design is employed in this study with the participation of

225 student teachers from the Faculty of English Teacher Education who have already attended the course called “Language Assessment” in the first semester

of the school year 2019-2020 These students participated in the first phase of the data collection process using questionnaire In the next phase, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 students with noticeable answer in

the questionnaire As the number of participants covers 80% of the research population (320 students), it is possible for the researcher to generalize the findings to conclude about the assessment competence of seniors in ULIS

1.3 Significance

Within the scope of this study, the researcher hopes to examine the assessment competence of pre-service teachers (or senior teacher trainees) in their own perception and in reality in ULIS – a Vietnamese university who offers students

a course called “Language Assessment” in the first semester of their final year

In the data collection stage, students who participate in this research would get a chance to revise and reevaluate the knowledge and skills they have acquired through the course In addition, for teacher educators in not only ULIS but also any other universities inside or outside Vietnam, the study will help uncover which knowledge and skills are included in assessment competence training, what have ULIS senior teacher trainees gained and what else do they need to enhance their competence in the near future Therefore, in the real practice of language assessment, the study wishes to become a useful reference material for policy makers, teacher educators and pre-service teachers in the process of training to be English teachers in the future

1.4 Methods of the study

The study follows a mixed method design, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches Three instruments namely questionnaires, and semi-structured interview and document analysis are adopted in this research, which divides the data collection stage into three different phases Specifically, the first and the second phases using questionnaire and semi-structure interviews respectively offer information about the perception of pre-service teachers about their own assessment competence after attending the “Language Assessment” course Meanwhile, the third phase with educational text (presentations and essays) analysis allows the researcher to find out how these students’ competence are reflected through their assignments

Accordingly, both quantitative and qualitative data analysis have to be conducted While descriptive statistics are run to analyze data from the questionnaires, content-based analysis is applied for data from interviews and documents (participants’ presentations and essays)

1.5 Organization of the paper

This research consists of five chapters presented as below:

Chapter 1 – Introduction – presents the rationale, aims, scope, significance,

method and structure of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature review – provides the definition of key terms as well as

the framework of the study and includes reviews on related studies to the research topic

Chapter 3 – Methodology – gives information about the setting of the research,

sampling method, participants’ information, data collection instruments, and data analysis methods of the research

Chapter 4 – Findings and discussion – presents, analyzes and discusses the

research findings

Chapter 5 – Conclusion – provides the summary of findings;

implications, limitations of the study; and suggestions for further research

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses theoretical knowledge and related studies, which lay a foundation to tackle the research questions The definitions of key terms such as

“assessment”, “classroom assessment” and “speaking assessment” will be presented along with the theories and the research gap from relevant literature

2.1 An overview of the field of language assessment and the concept of

assessment competence

2.1.1 Definitions of assessment:

Assessment is an essential component of education, and it maintains a close link with “teaching” and “curriculum" “Teaching” can be defined as the engagement with learners to enable their understanding and application of knowledge, concepts and processes It includes design, content selection, delivery, assessment and reflection (Christensen, 1991) To effectively engage students in learning and prepare them for the assessment after a particular course, teachers have to be highly aware of the “curriculum” According to Wiles and Bondi (2007), the curriculum “represents a set of desired goals or values that are activated through a development process and culminate in successful learning experiences for students” In other words, it refers to what learners really learn,

or what can be assessed and can be demonstrated as learning outcomes, so-called the learner competencies The curriculum outlines the key knowledge that students need to learn over the time in order to be successful, which then drives what and how teachers teach

Curriculum, teaching and assessment are inextricably linked When all of them are conducted with the highest quality, they will facilitate effective learning for all students As a result, assessment, especially at the end of a course, is of vital importance to the process of teaching and developing the curriculum

Figure 1 The interrelation among “curriculum”, “teaching” and

“assessment”

However, in the field of education, the term “assessment” can be easily mistaken with “measurement” or “evaluation”, and it can also be defined in many different ways While measurement is only the procedure for assigning numbers, so-called

“scores”, to show the extent to which a student has certain characteristics, evaluation is the process of making value judgement about the worth of a student’s product or performance Assessment can be considered as a wider concept including not only measurement but also evaluation with the aim to obtain information for making decisions about students; curricular, programs, and schools; and education policy Therefore, this paper adopts the definition of Dhindsa, Omar and Waldrip in 2007, which described educational assessment as

“a systematic process for gathering data about student achievement”

2.1.2 An overview of current educational assessment context

Mabry (1999) divided the history of assessment into three traditional paradigms: psychometric, the contextualized and the personalized (ipsative) paradigms

Curriculum

Knowledege students need to acquire

Assessment

Ways to find out what students have learnt and use it to inform curriculum and teaching

Teaching

Methods to deliver the knowledge

The first paradigm shortens the process of assessment into measuring only the learning outcomes The primary instrument of this paradigm is the large-scale standardized test The utility of standardized tests undeniably brings about several benefits as it is productive, objective, easy to mark, and able to test manifold details at a time, which is extremely time and money saving However,

it causes numerous serious washback effects on not only learners but also teachers, such as examination pressure, invasion of personal privacy, ability to test only small and superficial knowledge on a small scale, incompatible with the training objectives, …

Therefore, the second paradigm appeared with an important progression of putting the assessment in a particular context (Griffin & Nix, 1991) In this contextualized paradigm, assessment is expected to be consistent with the curriculum and primarily conducted in the classroom This type of assessment is conducted by at least two teachers on a regular basis The results of the evaluation must be meaningful enough to develop student competencies, rather than just classifying them However, it slowly reveals several shortcomings such

as too long marking time, small scope of assessment content and subjectivity (because assessment was mainly based on teachers)

The form of personalized assessment marks the third milestone in educational history (Marby, 1999) Personalized assessment recognized that each student has his or her own characteristics, qualifications, knowledge, responses, and needs Stiggins (2001) stated that students must become the center of assessment This approach focuses more on motivating students to take more responsibility for their own learning and make assessment an integral part of learning instead of simply testing students’ memorization (Stiggins, 1997; Zhang, & Burry-Stock, 2003)

In short, these three forms of educational assessment have distinct characteristics Although one paradigm might occasionally seem superior to the others, all of them still develop simultaneously without being replaced

In the last few decades, although modern educational assessment develops towards individualizing learners in the process of learning, it is constructed basing on a combination of the three aforementioned paradigms, showing all the skills, knowledge, assessment competency and awareness, all the characteristics

of assessment and benefits Many assessment techniques may be used to collect this information such as formal and informal observations of a student; paper-and-pencil tests; a student’s performance on homework, lab work, research papers, projects, and so on Duong (2012) synthesize some significant characteristics of the modern educational assessment as follow:

Assessments must be clear and appropriate to the situation It must be authentic and meaningful Assessment tasks must vary Students should be active participants in the assessment Assessments need to be valid and objective Assessors must ensure high reliability, and the results should not be just numbers Assessment must tell about students’ learning competence Finally, assessment may take a lot of time and effort (Duong, 2012)

Educational assessment can be classified in several ways basing on different aspects such as target, framework of reference and scale In terms of scale, assessment can be divided into 2 main practices of standardized large-scale assessment and classroom assessment As this study targets at pre-service teachers, specifically senior teacher trainees in the final year of university, the term “educational assessment” proves to be too wide for its scope It is because these university students have only practiced assessment in the small scale of a classroom through micro-teaching activities at school and during their internship Therefore, in the scope of this research, it is reasonable for the term

“educational assessment” to be narrowed down as “classroom assessment” James (2015) suggested that classroom assessment is “a set of items, techniques, and procedures that teachers and students engage in to collect, evaluate, and report student achievement” Although tests have been used extensively as a typical type of classroom assessment, classroom assessment is an umbrella term, which is much wider than “testing” Instead, the term refers to a wide variety of

methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students As a result, classroom assessment can serve a variety of purposes – to document what students know and can do, diagnose strengths, weaknesses, and misunderstandings, improve and enhance student learning, motivate students, assign grades, and provide feedback to parents In other words, classroom assessment can be considered a powerful tool for teachers to gather data and information about how their students are progressing and what they need and want in the further development of their skills In this research paper, educational assessment

2.1.3 The concept of assessment competence in the current context

Assessment involves the critical roles of both teachers and students However, many research papers, including the one by Metler (2005), indicate that teachers are not well equipped with sufficient knowledge on testing and assessment, which prevents them from successfully performing the roles as assessors in classroom

The discussion about teachers’ roles and ability in language assessment gradually leads to a recently prominent concept, which is “assessment literacy”

It is first mentioned by Stiggins in 1991 According to this renowned researcher, assessment competence entails knowing “what it is being assessed; why it is assessed; how best to assess it; how to make a representative sample of the assessment; what problems can occur within the assessment process and how to prevent them from occurring”

Throughout its development, “assessment literacy” advanced in parallel with another term called “assessment competence” As competence consists of a combination of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity A competence is normally defined

as the holistic synthesis of these components (Ashworth & Saxton, 1990) In

comparison with literacy, competence was narrower and lied under the umbrella

of the more abstract term “literacy” However, “competence” was still popularly employed interchangeably with “literacy” because competency-based assessment centers on performance, and performance is constituted by a series

of tasks Therefore, it is more convenient to study about “assessment literacy” in equality with “assessment competency”, which, in turn, can be easily broken down a series of discrete task descriptions As a result, in this dissertation, the author wishes to use and explore the term assessment competence in alignment with the “assessment literacy” by other researchers

Later on, as the importance of assessment competence became more prominent,other psychological and educational researchers joined the field and introduced more other descriptions of the term Norman (2002) defined assessment literacy

as “the knowledge about how to assess what students know and can do, interpret the results of these assessments, and apply these results to improve student learning and program effectiveness.” The term gradually grew wider and more abstract According to Popham (2018), assessment literacy “consists of an individual's understanding of the fundamental assessment concepts and procedures deemed likely to influence educational decisions.” This research paper chose to adopt a more detailed definition by Michigan Assessment Consortium (2017), in which assessment competence is considered “the set of beliefs, knowledge, and practices about assessment that lead a teacher, administrator, policymaker, or students and their families to use assessment to improve student learning and achievement.” This general definition of assessment would serve as a basis for the definition of language assessment in the next session

2.1.4 Position of assessment competence in teacher competence in different countries

The importance of assessment has been acknowledged in many countries, especially in developed ones In these countries, the government and other educational institutions often associate to create sets of standards for teachers’ assessment competence

For instance, in 1990, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Council on Measurement in Education (National Education Association) collaborated to create a document entitled “Standards for Teacher Competence

in Educational Assessment of Students”, which established seven core requirements for teacher in student assessment as follow:

1 Teachers should be skilled in choosing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions

2 Teachers should be skilled in developing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions

3 The teacher should be skilled in administering, scoring and interpreting the results of both externally-produced and teacher-produced assessment methods

4 Teachers should be skilled in using assessment results when making decisions about individual students, planning teaching, developing curriculum, and school improvement

5 Teachers should be skilled in developing valid pupil grading procedures which use pupil assessments

6 Teachers should be skilled in communicating assessment results to students, parents, other lay audiences, and other educators

7 Teachers should be skilled in recognizing unethical, illegal, and otherwiseinappropriate assessment methods and uses of assessment information

Meanwhile, in Canada, the “Principles for Fair Student Assessment Practices for Education in Canada”, which was created by the Canada Education Association Joint Committee, in 1993, provided a very detailed description of the necessary assessment competence for teacher not only classroom assessment but also assessments produced external to the classroom However, because of the smaller scope of this study, only the classroom assessment competence presented

in Part A was mentioned This set of standards was organized around five interrelated themes representing five core assessment competences as follow:

1 Developing and Choosing Methods for Assessment

2 Collecting Assessment Information

3 Judging and Scoring Student Performance

4 Summarizing and Interpreting Results

5 Reporting Assessment Findings

In conclusion, the assessment competence describes knowledge and skills which are critical to a teacher's role as an educator It is of paramount importance, which should be well developed and incorporated into future teacher training

2.2 Conceptualization of language assessment competence through time 2.2.1 Definition of language assessment:

For language teachers, their competence of “assessment” can be specified into

“language assessment” Language assessment can be defined as “an ongoing process of judgment, encompassing a teacher’s comments and written phrases responding to students’ language performance as well as a form of reporting measurement” (Brown, 2002) 6 years later, Hornberger (2008) once stated more specifically about language assessment as follow:

“Language assessment or language testing is a field of study under the umbrella

of applied linguistics Its main focus is the assessment of first, second or other language in the school, college, or university context; assessment of language use in the workplace; and assessment of language in the immigration, citizenship, and asylum contexts.”

This research chose to investigate language assessment basing on this definition

2.2.2 Definitions of assessment competence through time and its classification

There exist several definitions of assessment competence in the field of language Davies (2008 cited in Malone, 2013) considers language assessment competence as the synthesis of skills (the how-to or basic testing expertise), knowledge (information about measurement and about language), and principles (concepts underlying testing such as validity, reliability, and ethics); whereas Taylor (2009) realizes the roles of test stakeholders in assessment competence and defines it as “the level of knowledge, skills and understanding of assessment principles and practice that is increasingly required by other test stakeholder

groups, depending on their needs and contexts.” Meanwhile, Malone (2013) simply describes it as “language teachers’ familiarity with testing definitions and the application of this knowledge to classroom practices in general and specifically to issues related to assessing language” To conclude, these definitions of language assessment competence are actually rooted in general assessment competence However, what makes LAC unique from AL is the incorporation of the term “language” in how it is conceptualized

Table 2a

Comparisons of definitions of assessment competence by scholar through time

Year Scholar Definition

2008 Davies A synthesis of following components:

+ skills (the how-to or basic testing expertise), + knowledge (information about measurement and about language),

+ principles (concepts underlying testing such as validity, reliability, and ethics)

2009 Taylor The level of knowledge, skills and understanding of

assessment principles and practice that is

increasingly required by other test stakeholder groups, depending on their needs and contexts

2013 Malone Language teachers’ familiarity with testing

definitions and the application of this knowledge to classroom practices in general and specifically to issues related to assessing language

2.2.3 Conceptualizing language assessment competence: what the

sub-competences are?

The components of language assessment competence still remain a matter of debate as each country has a distinct education system with different perspectives

on assessment compared to others Similarly, different one stakeholder can have extremely different requirements for teachers’ language assessment competence than the others Therefore, a framework of language assessment competence can only report on a set of knowledge and skills a specific group of teachers and stakeholders are expected to have As the focus of this study has been on assessment competence for teachers, some framework of assessment competence can be described as follow

Mertler (2004) claimed that assessment literate teachers can:

(1) recognize sound assessment, evaluation, and communication practices,

(2) understand which assessment methods to use to gather dependable information and student achievement,

(3) communicate assessment results effectively, whether using report card grades, test scores, portfolios, or conferences,

(4) can use assessment to maximize student motivation and learning by involving student as full partners in assessment, record keeping, and communication

Meanwhile, Davies (2008) states that language assessment competence has three basic elements: skills, knowledge, and principles, Fulcher (2012) argues the three aspects should be:

1 Knowledge, skills and abilities to design, develop, maintain or evaluate large-scale standardized and/or classroom-based tests,

2 Familiarity with test processes, and awareness of principles and concepts that guide and underpin practice, including ethics and codes of practice

3 Ability to place knowledge, skills, processes, principles and concepts within wider historical, social, political and philosophical frameworks Inbar-Lourie’s (2013) suggests different ingredients of language assessment competence for language teachers From the perspective of language assessment competence as “a unique complex entity”, her ingredients of language assessment competence are put into comparison with the two aforementioned frameworks in the Figure below

Table 2b

Comparison of three frameworks of language assessment sub-competences

Mertler (2004) Davies (2008) Inbar-Lourie’s (2013)

whether using report

card grades, test scores,

2 Familiarity with test processes, and

awareness of principles and concepts that guide and underpin practice, including ethics and codes of practice

3 Ability to place knowledge, skills, processes, principles and concepts within wider historical, social, political and

philosophical frameworks in order to understand why

practices have arisen as they have, and to evaluate the role and impact of testing on

1 Understanding of the social role of

assessment and the responsibility of the language tester

Understanding of the political (and) social forces involved, test power and

consequences

2 Knowledge on how

to write, administer and analyze tests; report test results and ensure test quality

3 Understanding of large-scale test data

4 Proficiency in language classroom assessment

5 Mastering language acquisition and learning theories and relating to them in the assessment process

keeping, and

communication

society, institutions, and individuals

6 Matching assessment with language teaching approaches with

knowledge about current language teaching approaches and pedagogies

7 Awareness of the dilemmas

8 LAC is individualized, the product of the knowledge, experience, perceptions, and beliefs that language teachers bring to the teaching and assessment process

From such variety of components, many different models and perspectives of language assessment competence are formed for different teacher groups or different levels of assessment stakeholders Therefore, to acquire the language assessment competence, teachers need to have a deep insight into the subject they teach and the required outcome competence of their students in their country

or region

In this paper, as the language assessment competence of pre-service teachers are evaluated after a specific course at university called “Language Assessment”, it would be irrational to merely adopt any of the abovementioned models Instead, the researcher chose to adapt the detailed framework by Inbar-Lourie’s (2013)

as it is the most detailed one with the consideration towards social role of

assessment and the political (and) social forces involved in the language assessment process

2.3 Conceptualizations and components of foreign language assessment

competence in Vietnam

2.3.1 Sets of standards and regulations for conducting language assessment

in primary and high school assessment

In Vietnam, English is the compulsory foreign language in primary and high schools Considering this foreign language assessment competence, in 2014, the Ministry of Education and Training published the Document Number 5333 about language assessment to enhance English proficiency for high schoolers The document does not provide any direct description about the assessment competence that teachers need to acquire Instead, it offers only lists different types of tests and suggested alternatives in assessment for schools with abundant facilities Besides, the oriented skills and output capacity for testing and high school student assessment are also mentioned Therefore, it can be said that during this period, a competent teacher should be aware of and able to practice several assessment methods and tools as listed in Document Number 5333 Previously in 2008, MOET launched a project called “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008 to 2020” in the Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTG In this circular, assessment competence is stated as one of the core requirements for English teachers besides teaching methodology and skill off applying technologies into teaching (MOET, 2008) Governmental budget is said to be allocated to offer training courses for teacher

in this field However, to date there is not yet a description of teachers’ assessment literacy in this national project

Until recently, there exist a few documents mentioning foreign language assessment competence for Vietnamese teachers In document number 14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT named “Promulgating the regulation on primary

teachers”, part number 6 listed all the requirements about professional knowledge Besides the knowledge about linguistics, pedagogical psychology, pedagogy, local history and politics, teachers are also required to have deep understanding about assessment

“Criteria 6 Requirements in the field of knowledge

of testing and evaluation of learning results of elementary school pupils in an innovative approach;

c) Examine, evaluate and classify students correctly, educationally and in accordance with regulations;

d) Have the ability to prepare tests basing on professional instructions, which meet the standard of knowledge and subject skills and suit different types of students."

Another document, number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT called “Circulars of promulgating the regulation on professional standards for high school teachers” provides a description of teachers’ competence in three levels: “Đạt” (Accepted),

“Khá” (Average) và “Tốt” (Good) Requirement number 6 about language assessment practice is stated as follow:

“Criteria 6 Testing and evaluating in the direction of developing students' language competencies

a) “Acceptable” level: Able to use different testing tools to assess students' academic results and progress;

b) “Average” level: Able to take initiative in updating and creatively applying assessing methods and testing tools to help develop students' language competencies;

c) “Good” level: Guide and support colleagues with experience of effectively implementing assessment on students' learning results and progress "

In Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence framework approved by the Ministry

of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF), besides language teaching methodology lesson planning and conducting, the fourth competence in the second domain of language teaching knowledge is “assessment of language learning” This competence includes sub-competences synthesized in the table 2c below

Table 2c

Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence framework approved by the Ministry

of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF)

Assessment Primary

teacher Performance Indicators

Secondary Teacher Performance Indicators

Inbar-Lourie (2013)

Design

assessment

Designs appropriate assessment tasks relevant to the objectives and content of the curriculum

age-Designs assessment tasks relevant to the objectives and content of the curriculum

2 Knowledge on how

to write, administer and analyze tests; report test results and ensure test quality

4 Proficiency in language classroom assessment

Ongoing

assessment

Implements continuous assessment which allows all children to demonstrate their knowledge and skills (e.g., assessing in-class reading and listening

comprehension activities/tasks)

Uses in-class activities to monitor and assess children’s participation and performance

Assesses children’s ability

to work independently and

collaboratively

Implements continuous assessment which allows all

students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills (e.g., assessing in class comprehension activities/tasks)

Uses in class activities to monitor and assess students’

participation and performance

Assesses students’ ability

to work independently and

collaboratively

7 Awareness of the dilemmas that underlie assessment: formative

vs summative; internal external; validity and reliability issues particularly with reference to authentic language use

Select

assessment

Evaluates and selects valid assessment procedures (quizzes,

Selects valid assessment procedures (speaking / writing tests,

5 Mastering language acquisition and learning theories and relating to

portfolios, assessment, etc.) appropriate to learning aims, objectives and content

self-portfolios, peer/

self- assessment etc.) appropriate

to learning aims and objectives

them in the assessment process

6 Matching assessment with language teaching approaches with

knowledge about current language teaching approaches and pedagogies

Use

assessment

information

Identifies strengths and areas for improvement in children’s performance (e.g through role plays, storytelling, quizzes and mini tests), using them to inform future planning

Use all assessment materials to write a report on children’s

progress and achievement

Identifies strengths and areas for improvement in students’

performance, using them to inform future planning

Use all assessment materials to write

a report on the students’

progress and achievement

2 Knowledge on how

to write, administer and analyze tests; report test results and ensure test quality

From the table, it is clear that in comparison to the aforementioned frameworks

by international scholars like Inbar-Lourie’s (2013), the one by Vietnamese MOET deems to be narrower with the exclusion of many sub-competences such

as understanding of the social role of assessment (1) or individualization in LA (8)

In conclusion, the context for operationalizing language assessment literacy in Vietnam is dynamic with quite multiple attempts to define this term, with clear distinctions There exist several official circulars and documents about foreign language (English) assessment competence for Vietnamese in-service teachers, and the aforementioned guidelines from these materials forms a narrower framework of teachers’ assessment competence compared to the global ones

2.3.2 Language assessment competence for Vietnamese pre-service teachers

In Vietnam, the standards for pre-service teachers’ language assessment competence remains one of the areas of assessment literature which is not yet adequately investigated by researchers As mentioned before, although there are some direct and indirect official instructions from the Ministry of Education and Training about the assessment competence threshold of teachers, there is absolutely none for pre-service ones Consequently, this research paper will assess pre-service teacher assessing competence basing on both the content of the course “Language Assessment”, existing frameworks and guidelines from MOET mentioned in the previous section However, as “in-service teachers outscored and outperformed pre-service teachers on nearly every subscale of assessment competence” (Mertler, 2003), the course content must be put into careful consideration to examine its alignment with the framework for in-service teachers by MOET

2.3.3 Language assessment courses for pre-service teachers in Vietnam

Despite the ambiguity in the standards for language assessment competence of teachers, especially pre-service ones in Vietnam, many universities with English pedagogy training courses have tried to include language assessment courses into their curriculums This paper takes into account the English language assessment courses available on the websites or in the curricula for pre-service English teachers of English teacher training institutions only

In the south of Vietnam, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy (Đại học

sư phạm thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) ,the curriculum does pay attention to language assessment literacy as it offers English teacher trainees with a course called

“Testing and assessment in teaching English” (Kiểm tra, đánh giá trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh) This course is normally conducted in the final year and it is compulsory for students to pass a previous course called “Theory and Methods

of English Language Teaching 1” before they can enter this new course of language assessment The content of the course includes an introduction to the purposes and roles of the testing and assessment, essential properties of a test The course introduction also states that the contents include the assessment of language elements (phonetics, vocabulary and grammar) and language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing skill) After mastering the theory, students will practice designing various tests, in which they have to pay special attention to the way multiple choice questions in tests and assessments are composed

Similarly, Vinh University, also create a language assessment course for its English teacher trainees Students have this course in their seventh semester, which accounts for 3 credits After the course, students are expected to effectively apply the knowledge into testing and assessing English competency

of students in high school

Located in Hanoi, University of Languages and International has offered a compulsory language assessment course since 2015 As this research paper is

going to be conducted in the English pedagogy department of this university, the information about the course will be further discussed in the upcoming contents

In contrast, Hanoi National University of Education (Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội), also an English teacher training institution in Hanoi, as far as its English teacher education program is investigated, the TESOL program provides teacher trainees with no training course about language assessment

Regarding other private sectors, only a few organizations offer courses about language assessment For example, in Ho Chi Minh city, “SEAMEO RETRAC”, one of the reliable and renowned centers which offers quality English language programs for a wide range of subjects to meet individual and organizational needs for academic, business and professional training, is now running an English language assessment course with the 2 following aims of (1) fostering learners about the knowledge and skills to design, build, organize tests and English proficiency assessment activities in accordance with the content, teaching requirements and format of test in Vietnamese high school currently and (2) fostering knowledge and skills to carry out action research activities to improve the effectiveness of teaching English at high schools The course consists of 120 periods including 2 main components: English language testing and assessment component, and Action research component Each component composes 60 regular lessons and 40–80 self-study periods and exercises

To conclude, in Vietnam, although there exists no official papers from the government about language assessment competence standards, the need of providing teachers with fundamental knowledge and skills of assessing English has already been recognized and the field has been receiving a lot of attention from not only schools but also private organizations and scholars recently

2.3.4 Language assessment course in University of Languages and

International Studies

The course “Language Assessment” is a compulsory course for fourth year students who are being trained as teachers in the Faculty of English Language

Teacher Education in ULIS The course last for 15 weeks with 3 periods each week, which equals about 3 hours of in-class learning and is divided into 15 modules with the five objectives as follow:

After the course, students are expected to achieve the following competence:

1 Understanding key concepts in the field of language assessment

2 Defining a good assessment

3 Evaluating different assessment methods and instruments

4 Assessing different language components (vocabulary and grammar) and skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking)

5 Analyzing assessment outcome and giving comments

These five core objectives are then divided into a number of sub-objectives and grouped into different modules for each week of learning

It is stated in the text book “Language Assessment” of this course that these learning targets are developed based on a well - constructed taxonomy of competencies that prior research has consistently suggested as core abilities in language assessment literacy (Vogt & Tsagari, 2014) as well as list of key assessment knowledge and skills required in the Foreign Language Teacher Competency Framework for Vietnam Therefore, it is rational to conclude that this course is competence-based, and its objectives are the sub-competences that the participating pre-service teachers need to acquire after the course Moreover, those learning targets, so-called the sub-competences, manage to satisfy to both international and local standards In comparison to the current policies of MOET about teacher’s assessment competence, the course contents match greatly The detailed comparison is presented in the table 2c below

Module 1 Items 1-2 Criteria 6a,b – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Criteria 6a,b – Document number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT

Module 2 Items 3-7 Criteria 6a,b – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Criteria 6a,b – Document number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT

Module 3 Items 8-9 Criteria 6a,b – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Criteria 6a,b – Document number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT

Module 4 Items 10-12 Criteria 6a,b – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Criteria 6a,b – Document number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT

Module 5 Items 13-15 Criteria 6c – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Criteria 6a,b – Document number 20/2018/TT-BGDĐT Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence framework approved by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF)

Module 12 Items 34-35 Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence

framework approved by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF)

Module 14 Items 36-37 Criteria 6c – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence framework approved by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF)

Module 15 Items 38-40 Criteria 6c – Document number

14/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT Vietnam’s English teachers’ competence framework approved by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2012 (ETCF)

Because of the adequacy of contents of ULIS’ LA course compared to the local contexts in Vietnam, this study will employ the detailed schedule and contents

of the course as the most important background besides the reviewed literature

to develop the questionnaire, the most important research instrument in the search for pre-service teachers at ULIS’s perception about their own assessment literacy The marking criteria of the two assignments are also going to be adopted

to inform the instrument design in the third phase of research, document analysis, where the results of students’ presentations and essays will be analyzed to reveal their achievements and challenges

2.4 Related studies globally and locally

2.4.1 Related studies about foreign language assessment competence globally

Since language assessment is a comparatively new field in ELT, it has recently captured the attention of scholars across various educational contexts, especially

in outer circle countries

A research paper named “An investigation of Chinese middle school in-service English teachers’ assessment competence” by two researchers from 2 different university in Beijing was conducted in 2014 to investigate into the status quo of assessment competence of Chinese middle school in-service English teachers The two scholars made use of 10 tasks designed by Coombe et al (2007) to test the assessment competency of 39 teachers (33 females and 6 males) From the data analysis, they found that Chinese secondary English teachers have low levels of assessment competence They are not aware of such principles as authenticity, sensitivity issues about test content and self-assessment Especially, they are extremely incompetent in understanding statistics about item analysis and distractor efficiency analysis Interestingly, no significant difference was detected about teachers’ assessment competence in terms of teaching experience among these in-service teachers Therefore, the authors called for a study into language assessment courses offered for secondary English teachers to see whether or not enough attention was paid into the training process

In Japan, a group of four researchers from different university around Japan conducted a study called “In search of “Assessment Competence” for Japanese English teachers”.Their paper summarizes two years of multi-faceted inquiries into the present practices and state of English teacher education in Japan The investigations also included the analyses of typical textbooks used for English teacher education and a needs survey conducted to teacher educators Its result revealed a serious lack in coverage of important assessment-related concepts and statistical test-analysis skills in most teacher education courses, which is similar

to the current situation in Vietnam

Another research carried out by Serpil Öz and Derin Atay in Turkey named

“Turkish EFL instructors’ in-class language assessment competence: perceptions and practices” collected its data from twelve instructors, 8 females and 4 males with varied experience between 1-15 years who worked in English Preparatory Program of a Turkish university Semi-structured interview was employed in order to collect data, which eventually shows that although most of