چکیده:
The current study investigated the language assessment literacy of two groups of Iranian medical ESP practitioners while teaching reading comprehension under formative assessment lens. To do so, 21 ESP instructors, 8 content and 13 ELT instructors, from five universities in Iran were recruited to participate in the study. A 40-item questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and non-participatory observations were employed by the researchers to collect the required data. The descriptive results of both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that the ELT and content teachers’ reading assessment performances were almost the same. The results also revealed that the content teachers had limited knowledge about formative classroom assessment (FCA). Although the ELT instructors were in broader agreement on the knowledge category, in practice, little trace of it was found. In terms of the principles, both the ELT and content instructors agreed that assessment principles were necessary for measuring students’ achievement. For the skill category, contrary to the content teachers, the ELT instructors were on the belief that this category was crucial; however, they did not implement it in their assessment activities.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Although the LAL studies above directly or indirectly have suggested the importance of LAL for language teachers, who directly receive and engage with assessment results, the studies mostly indicated that assessment literacy, for a long time, was specifically examined from the knowledge of educational measurement and the beliefs towards assessment practices has gained little attention.
Therefore, to partly fill this gap as well as to a dearth of research on Iranian ESP practitioners’ assessment literacy, this study tens to explore the perceptions and actual classroom assessment practices of two groups of Iranian medical ESP practitioners, content and ELT teachers, who take the responsibility of teaching medical ESP courses and decide about their students' academic progress, to gain a more vivid picture of their assessment practices and a better understanding of the status quo of medical ESP assessment activities.
Research Question One: What are language instructors' and content teachers' perceptions about assessing the students' reading skills in medical ESP courses ?
Research Question Two: What are language instructors' and content teachers' techniques for assessing the students' reading skills in medical ESP courses ?
The participants were selected by purposeful sampling, as the study found this way of selection helpful to exploit a wide valid comparatively comprehensive repertoire of beliefs and practices of the two groups of medical ESP practitioners on reading assessment literacy.
Fifth, the participants of the study in ELT teachers’ groups (n=11) were on the belief that their assessment practices are limited to university regulations in contrast to the content teachers (n=8) who felt free in this respect.