论文总字数：27889字

摘 要

随着英语新课程改革的不断进步，初中英语教学质量获得了很大的提升。尽管如此，其教学模式仍有待改进。众所周知，评价在英语教学中扮演着重要的角色，因为它能够直观明了地反应教学效果。评价一般可分为形成性评价和终结性评价。但在现行的教育体系中，这两种评价方式在初中英语教学中没有得到有效应用。本文着重分析形成性评价和终结性评价这两种评价模式，尤其是二者在定义、教学效果和课堂应用等方面的不同。

关键词：形成性评价；终结性评价；对比；评价模式

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Current Assessment Model of English Teaching in Middle School 1

3. Definition of the Two Assessments 2

3.1 Definition of Formative Assessment 2

3.2 Definition of Summative Assessment 3

4. Effects of the Two Assessments for English Teaching 3

4.1 Advantages of Formative Assessment 3

4.2 Disadvantages of Formative Assessment 4

4.3 Advantages of Summative Assessment 4

4.4 Disadvantages of Summative Assessment 5

5. Application of the Two Assessments in English Teaching 5

5.1Examples of Formative Assessment in English Teaching 5

5.2Examples of Summative Assessment in English Teaching 8

6. Suggestions 8

7. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

English teaching is by no means a pure teaching process in classes, which includes many other procedures such as teaching design before class, teaching methods in class, teaching reflection after class and so on. In the language testing lecture, formative assessment is usually contrasted with summative assessment on the grounds that the former is intended to feed back into the teaching and learning process while the latter reports on the outcomes of learning (Bachman, 1996: 60). Over a long period of time, many teachers have considered summative assessment to be the only way to evaluate students’ achievements, which is unilateral to some extent. With the constant deepening of the study of middle school English teaching, teachers gradually pay attention to formative assessment. Some teachers have tried to apply it into their teaching, but this is far insufficient for demands of New English Curriculum Standard. The aim of this thesis is to let teachers have a better understanding of formative and summative assessments in middle school English teaching. Then, through ceaseless exploration, they are able to apply the two assessments properly and effectively into their teaching.

2. Current Assessment Model of English Teaching in Middle School

Nowadays, English is an important language that is widely taught and learned all over the world. As many factors combine to influence English teaching and learning process, we realize that teaching and learning English well are not that easy. For example, the traditional test-oriented assessment puts too much emphasis on students’ grasp of grammar and vocabulary while neglects students’ improvement in oral English, which turns out to be an obstacle in the overall implementation of English teaching and learning (Chen Yue, 2013:115). To conclude, this traditional assessment model is imperfect in its way to assess students’ language competence. From the perspective of the development of basic education, this assessment model can’t keep pace with the requirements of new curriculum reform.

There has been numerous studies on this topic, most of which point out the defects of summative assessment. Firstly, the deep-rooted idea of summative assessment needs to be changed. Lacking in theoretical guidance, most teachers just imitate predecessors’ application of summative assessment regardless of its practicability. Secondly, the criterion of summative assessment is not rigorous in that it highlights students’ intellectual education while neglects their subjectivity, motility and creativity. The new curriculum reform defines curriculum goals as comprehensive language capacity, including language knowledge, language skills, learning strategies, emotional attitudes and culture awareness (Liu Fengxian, 2005: 60). With only one criterion, that is, students’ scores on tests, summative assessment shows its one-sidedness vividly. In other words, summative assessment is powerless in testing students’ overall development. Thirdly, the strategies to use summative assessment are out-dated. As summative assessment focuses only on students’ final scores, students will gradually pay less attention to their performance in the learning process, which is unfavorable to motivate their interest in English study. Meanwhile, teachers will inevitably lose the initiative to explore and reform their teaching contents and methods. Under this circumstance, as long as the students can get a high score in tests, they will gain a sense of achievement. Similarly, as long as his students perform better than others’, a teacher will win the reputation of being a good educator. Regardless of students’ scores in tests, we should admit that they don’t assume their respective responsibilities in the process of learning. Based on the existing problems mentioned above, educators had created a better assessment model in middle school English teaching. They hold that in many academic settings, formative and summative assessments are not mutually exclusive, and the same assessment may be used for both purposes. Formative assessments are not limited to instructor/supervisor assessments of students, but also include the use of student self-assessment, peer assessment, and administrative assessment of educational effectiveness (Emanuel, Robinson and Korczak, 2013: 14).

3. Definition of the Two Assessments

3.1 Definition of Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a kind of assessment that is prepared and carried out by teachers as a routine part of teaching and learning. Information gained from it is usually used diagnostically by teachers. Through out the years, many scholars have provided formative assessment with different conceptions, among which Black and William’s definition is the most acceptable one. They refer to formative assessment as "all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/or by students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged"（Black and Wiliam, 1998: 74). Forms of formative assessment are various in terms of assessment ways and people who carry it out. Formative assessment puts emphasis on the process of language learning, it is an assessment which looks forward and values students’ overall development.

3.2 Definition of Summative Assessment

Summative assessment gives teachers information to decide scores and give students feedback on their performance. The judgment about a learner’s performance is likely to feed into record-keeping and be used for administrative purposes, e.g. checking standards and targets. It is frequently externally imposed, e.g. by an institution or a ministry of education. To sum up, summative assessment is a kind of cumulative assessment that is used to measure students’ growth after a period of teaching. It is generally given at the end of a course in order to determine whether long term learning goals have been met (Su Dehong, 2001: 21). The formats of summative assessment are somehow monotonous. Since it emphasizes the product of language learning, it is an assessment which looks backward.

4. Effects of the Two Assessments for English Teaching

4.1 Advantages of Formative Assessment

Generally speaking, there are many advantages of formative assessment in middle school English teaching both to teachers and students. Firstly, as an ongoing assessment, it helps teachers to check students’ current language ability at any moment. Secondly, by constant observation of students’ growth, teachers can decide what minor modifications or major changes they need to make in teaching to improve their teaching skills. Last but not least, teachers will have a better understanding of students by using formative assessment, so they can design appropriate procedures and activities that are suitable for students.

When it comes to the advantages to students, we should talk about the features of middle school English teaching. As Chinese students, even though they have learned a little English at primary school, English is still an obscure language for them. So they need interest and motivation to learn it, which can be given by teachers in the process of formative assessment. To begin with, formative assessment allows students to participate in the process of assessment, which embodies their major roles in English classes. Secondly, forms of formative assessment are various, so it can inspire students’ motivation to learn the target language. In addition, by using formative assessment, teachers can inform students of their progress or regression, which in turn helps students to set achievable goals for them in the next period. Under this circumstance, students can gradually possess some valuable lifelong skills such as self-evaluation and goal setting.

4.2 Disadvantages of Formative Assessment

First and for most, implementing formative assessment is a very demanding task for teachers, in other words, it requires teachers’ acquisition of solid professional skills. For example, teachers may ask open questions, but then ‘correct’ the answers rather than use them to re-direct their work, or they may ask pupils to assess their work but fail to use this information to formulate formative feedback (Cao Yaming, 2010: 275). Secondly, according to my questionnaire, many English teachers have known the necessity to use formative assessment in teaching, but they confess that they fail to persist in applying. The reason is that it takes too much time. Last but not the least, many teachers have interpreted formative assessment as incorporating all uses of assessment and focusing on enhancing established practices of frequent testing, which may damage rather than enhance pupils’ learning. As we can conclude, applying formative assessment is a high- demanding project, which takes a great deal of time and energy.

4.3 Advantages of Summative Assessment

Summative assessment requires students to completely show their language competence in an exam. From the performance that certain students make in a final examination, teachers can have a direct understanding of students’ English proficiency after a period of instruction. Compared with formative assessment, summative assessment is obviously an easy and concrete way to evaluate students’ learning outcomes. What’s more, the unitary form of summative assessment indicates that it can relieve teachers from the burden of overwhelming workload.

4.4 Disadvantages of Summative Assessment

There are conspicuously some disadvantages of summative assessment. On one hand, summative assessment emphasizes the product of instruction but neglects teaching process and students’ performance at usual time, which may leads to students’ lack of enthusiasm for study. Gradually, students who lack self-discipline will form a habit to study hard at the end of a term, but to idle about in the process of teaching, which is a disadvantage of summative assessment as well as of exam-oriented education. On the other hand, there are more or less contingencies in a test, such as the environment around and the physical conditions of students. These contingencies are unpredictable and uncontrollable, but they may lead to students’ bad performance in the test. Suppose a top student got a cold, should teachers regard him as a bad student because of low scores? There is no denying that cheating is still a common phenomenon in all kinds of exams, though teachers have taken actions to prevent it. Taking these factors into account, the results of summative assessment can be misleading sometimes, that is to say, the credibility of tests can’t be promised. Last but not least, some items of tests can’t distinguish good and bad students well. For example, sometimes tests are just made up of multiple-choice questions, which don’t meet the needs of validity of tests. To conclude, summative assessment sometimes are lacking in credibility and validity, while the assessment we expect should be able to evaluate students’ achievements more accurately and precisely.

5. Application of the Two Assessments in English Teaching

5.1Examples of Formative Assessment in English Teaching

Generally speaking, formative assessment is composed of four categories: self- assessment, mutual assessment, teachers’ assessment and cooperative assessment (Dochy, Segers and Sluijsmans, 1999: 331). Only when the four procedures are accomplished step by step can formative assessment reflect the actual effects for teaching. Classic examples of the four procedures are as following.

Self-assessment refers to students’ self-summary of their attitudes toward study and their study approaches during a period of time. Writing journals is a common form of it, which enables students to freely reveal their feelings of learning. The benefit is that it encourages students to engage in study and be responsible for study. In order to make journals exert a better influence on self-assessment, teachers should provide some questions as guidance for students: whether students are concentrated in class, whether students are willing to participate in different activities, whether students are able to say words and sentences with fluency, whether students are content with their pronunciation and so on. After teachers get the validated feedback, they can guide students to make better study plans.

Mutual assessment is a vital tool to judge students’ competence. Literally, it means that students can assess classmates by themselves. A typical example of mutual assessment is questionnaire, which requires students to conduct assessment of their classmates in the light of daily observation. In an English class, students are usually grouped into several study groups to discuss questions. As time goes by, all students in the group will improve their abilities to learn automatically, increase their awareness of team spirit and exercise their practice ability. It also provides a chance for students to know more about their classmates, which helps them to conduct a questionnaire more fairly.

Teachers’ assessment plays a leading role in the whole evaluation system. Nowadays, the major method used in teachers’ assessment is classroom observation, which requires teachers and students to interact actively in class. In fact, teachers are available to contact with students at any time, so they are definitely the best observers of students’ achievement. Some examples of teachers’ assessment in middle school English teaching are:

• Let’s take The Students’ Book of 7A Unit 5 as an example. This unit mainly talks about different festivals, so when teachers plan teaching procedures, they can prepare a brainstorm activity to let students write down all they know about different festivals around the world. By carrying out this procedure, teachers can find out how much students have known about the world cultures, which they are intended to teach. Then through observation, if teachers find that students can’t come up with many ideas about this question, but they show great interest in the answer, then teachers can spend more time introducing some famous festivals to them. Although it may seems to affect teaching schedule, but its potential benefit for students is unpredictable.
• Let students express their understanding of a phrase before and after teaching. For example, trick or treat is an interesting game at Halloween, which is much fun for children. Before teaching, teachers can ask them to imagine what ‘trick or treat’ is and how to play this game. Then teachers can keep a sense of mystery and ask:‘Really? Let’s find out the answer in our text!’It can’t be denied that the task-based teaching method can arouse students’ interest to learn this text. After teaching, teachers can ask students to recall this game, which is the production of what they have learned.
• Ask students to summarize the main ideas of an assigned reading, for example, the main idea of the reading part of 7A Unit5-Let’s celebrate. Through this procedure, teachers can know how much students have learned about the text.
• Have students complete a task at the end of a Unit. For example, after learning 7A Unit5, teachers can ask students to design an activity program for a certain festival. If possible, teachers can choose one of their programs to put into practice to arouse students’ interest in studying English.
• Assign a task of writing a composition. For example, teachers can ask students to write a composition of a specific topic: what do Chinese people do to celebrate spring festival.

Cooperative assessment is accomplished by the cooperation of teachers and students. In order to maximize effects of this assessment, teachers’ classroom observation, interview and questionnaire as well as parents’ feedback should be taken into consideration, which also shows the diversity of methods to evaluate students. Let’s take interview as an example to explain cooperative assessment. Interview refers to talks or discussions about students’ study that take place between teachers and students. The topic on an interview can be study tasks that students have already finished, or the tasks they are doing at present. Through communication with students about their inner thoughts, teachers can put forward sound suggestions for them on their study. Similarly, after interview, teachers who are scrupulous with education will reflect on their teaching methods, and if necessary, adjust teaching methods to meet students’ needs.

5.2Examples of Summative Assessment in English Teaching

As summative assessment can only be made after a period of instruction, it takes longer time make adjustments to learning. In accordance with different tools that are used to apply assessment, there are generally two types of summative assessments: Interpretive Exercise and Constructive Task (Patterson, 1995: 73). Interpretive Exercise is a kind of selected response, that is to say, students are asked to select right answers of some objective items. Such tests are commonly designed in three formats: Multiple choice questions, True/false questions and Matching questions. Constructive Task, however, requires students to make certain responses rather than choosing among the confined answers. Some common formats of Constructive Task include oral report, extended written response and performance assessment. These two types of summative assessment, though diverse in formats, are both carried out in the following situations:

• State-mandated assessments (middle school entrance examination)
• Interim assessments
• End-of-unit or -chapter tests
• End-of-term or -semester exams

6. Suggestions

After taking various factors into account, I reckon formative assessment far outweigh summative assessment. But it doesn’t mean that we ought to abandon summative assessment. Just as the saying goes, every coin has two sides. Both of them have advantages that deserve to be respected and rewarded by English teachers. My suggestions on the choice of the two assessments and on how to apply them are as following.

Principles to choose the appropriate assessment:

As to which assessment to choose, we should keep in mind that both of them are valuable under a specific condition. On one hand, as I mentioned in the previous chapters, advantages of formative assessment far outweigh summative assessment in many respects, so it should be used frequently in English teaching process. It can not only evaluate students’ overall development and teachers’ work, but also symbolize the activeness in English class. One the other hand, despite of disadvantages of summative assessment, it is unwise for us to abandon it. In fact, we can limit these disadvantages as much as possible. For example, schools can set up more strict invigilation systems to avoid cheating in tests, which can make the results of tests more credible. To conclude, teachers had better take a priority over formative assessment, meanwhile, they can use summative assessment when necessary. That is the ideal model of assessment in middle school English teaching.

Strategies to use formative assessment:

1. Invite students to discuss questions in pairs or groups, and then ask a representative of each pair or group to share answers with the whole class. At last, teachers can choose one group as the winner in the presentation. If possible, teachers can design an award system to encourage the winners.

2. Questioning is viewed as a critical skill for language teachers because questions elicit students’ responses and then push further interaction. For the purpose of examining the roles of questions, questions are distinguished into three types – procedural questions, convergent questions and divergent questions (Farahian, Majid and Rezaee, 2012: 161). So in real English classes, teachers should ask different kinds of questions that are suitable to specific teaching conditions.

Strategies to use summative assessment:

1. English tests for middle school students should be closely related to students’ books, so it can improve students’ awareness to read books. To be closely related to students’ books doesn’t mean that tests can be too easy, if so, they won’t make a difference between students’ language abilities. So test designers should make a balance between basic knowledge and expanding knowledge, only in this way can teachers know better about students’ achievement. During the period of basic education, teachers should devote to reinforcing students’ grasp of basic knowledge. If examiners design tests based on the above principle, students will have confidence in study, which is beneficial to their further study as well as their whole development.

2. Language is the tool for us to communicate with each other, so it is essential to evaluate students’ oral English in tests. There are many people around us whose knowledge reserve is not directly proportional to their level of oral English, which is caused by their neglect of oral English in English study. This odd phenomenon is ironically regarded as ‘dumb English’ by many scholars. To solve this problem, teachers can design some interesting activities in classes, for example, ask students to say a short story in English. This will not only provide chances for them to practice speaking English, but also arouse their interest in English. As to examiners, they can design an oral English test for students in the end-of- term or -semester exam. Actually, in middle school English teaching, teachers should start to implant ideas to students that English study includes four aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing, among which listening and speaking are learning focuses in middle school English study.

The suggestions I put forward are based on the theoretical level, so when applying assessments to real English class, teachers should be flexible enough to adopt a certain kind of assessment according to the specific teaching conditions, thus to maximize the effects for middle school English teaching.

7. Conclusion

From what has been discussed above, we can conclude that formative and summative assessments are of great difference in many aspects, which all together bring about different effects for middle school English teaching. In the long history of exploring excellent tools for assessment, teachers have tried various kinds of ways to evaluate students’ English language proficiency. Some of them are deserved to be praised, but others are not. One of the effective attempts is combining the two assessments. To be more specific, this innovative evaluation system requires teachers to apply the two assessments whenever it is appropriate. So far, this kind of combination is thought to be a comparatively splendid assessment model, but we believe that it can still be improved by our persistent studies. There is absolutely not an almighty method of English teaching, and assessment model is of no exception. Just as professor Wang Zuoliang pointed out incisively in the 1980s: “some methods are useful to some people in some places; no method is useful to all people all times in all places.” Maybe we can understand this sentence by citing a proverb: The most suitable is the best. Faced with the diversity of evaluation system, teachers should treat them in a positive manner and absorb the reasonable part of them. It’s essential that teachers test the effectiveness of a certain kind of assessment by applying it into the actual situations of teaching. Then, by consistent practice and studies, teachers can form their unique assessment model which is beneficial to their teaching effects as well as to students’ overall development.

Works Cited

[1] Bachman, Lyle F. and Adrian S. Palmer. Language testing in practice. Oxford University Press, 1996.

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