چکیده:
Multiple conceptualizations of the interrelation between assessment and
learning yield three notions of assessment: assessment of learning,
assessment for learning, and assessment as learning. This paper aims at
uncovering roles and obstacles of assessment for learning and assessment as
learning in English language classrooms in Hong Kong. Grounded upon the
theory of constructivism and the notion of learner autonomy, assessment for
learning and assessment as learning play vital roles in supporting students’
learning and nurturing autonomous learners in English language classrooms
in Hong Kong, respectively. In particular, assessment for learning provides
students with achievement targets prior to assessments, communicates
assessment results with students by means of descriptive feedback, and
guides teachers’ future lesson planning whilst assessment as learning equips
students with abilities to set personal learning goals, monitor their own
learning process, and conduct self-assessment in the course of learning. For
all their desirability and perceived pedagogical efficacy, seldom are these
two assessment practices operationalized in the implemented curriculum in
English language classrooms, where assessment of learning prevails; such
actualities can largely be attributable to local teachers’ lack of motivation to
modify their existing assessment practices out of their conservative
conceptualization of assessments, low metacognitive awareness as well as
level of English proficiency of local students, and large class sizes in local
classrooms, which are construed as local contextual factors hindering
implementation of the two assessment practices. The aforementioned
obstacles ought to be overcome so that the two assessment practices can be
promoted and implemented in local English classrooms in distinct year levels
for the sake of students’ language learning.