An investigation into teachers perceptions and practice of alternative assessment in esp classes ai hue university

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Statement of authorship Acknowledgements Table of contents List of abbreviations List of tables and charts Abstract .6 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study .7 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 Objectives and research questions .10 1.4 Scope of the study .11 1.5 Organization of the study .11 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Testing, assessment and evaluation .12 2.2 Alternative assessment: Definitions and forms 16 2.2.1 Why is alternative assessment 16 2.2.2 Definitions .17 2.2.3 Forms of alternative assessment .19 2.2.3.1 Authentic assessment 20 2.2.3.2 Performance-based assessment 21 2.2.3.3 Portfolios assessment 21 2.3 Alternative assessment vs traditional assessment 22 2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of alternative assessment .24 2.5 Alternative assessment and ESP testing .26 2.6 Related studies on alternative assessment 27 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions 31 3.2 Research approach .31 3.3 Participants 32 3.4 Data collection instruments 33 3.4.1 Questionnaire 34 3.4.2 In-depth interview 35 3.5 Data collection procedures 36 3.6 Data analysis .37 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Results from the questionnaires 38 4.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment 39 4.1.2 How alternative assessment was used in ESP classes .43 4.1.3 Problems teachers encountered in applying alternative assessment in ESP classes .45 4.2 Results from the interviews 47 4.2.1 Teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment 47 4.2.2 How alternative assessment was used in ESP classes .49 4.2.2.1 The application of alternative assessment in ESP classes 49 4.2.2.2 The popular types of alternative assessment in ESP classes 52 4.2.3 Challenges teachers faced when applying alternative assessment 53 4.2.3.1 Subjective challenges .53 4.2.3.2 Objective challenges 54 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Conclusion 56 5.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment 56 5.1.2 The practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes 58 5.1.3 Challenges teachers faced when applying alternative assessment 59 5.2 Implications 61 5.2.1 For teachers 61 5.2.2 For students 63 5.2.3 For the college administrators 64 5.3 Contributions of the study 65 5.4 Limitations of the study .65 5.5 Recommendations for future research 66 References 67 Appendices LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AA Alternative Assessment CA Communicative Approach CLT Communicative Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language ERIC Educational Resources Information Center ESP English for Specific Purposes HUCFL Hue University-College of Foreign Languages N number NCLRC The National Capital Language Resource Center Ss Students SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Ts Teachers LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table/ Chart Pages Table 2.1 Contrasting traditional and alternative assessment 22 Table 3.1 Summary of the participants .33 Table 3.2 Summary of the questionnaire .35 Table 4.1 The reliability of the piloted questionnaire 38 Table 4.2 The reliability of the questionnaire .39 Table 4.3 Teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment 39 Table 4.4 Teachers’ perceptions about the roles, the benefits as well as how to efficiently apply alternative assessment 40 Chart 4.1 The necessity of alternative assessment .41 Chart 4.2 One advantage of alternative assessment .42 Chart 4.3 One way to apply alternative assessment effectively 42 Table 4.5 The practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes 43 Chart 4.4 The frequency of applying different types of alternative assessment 44 Chart 4.5 The frequencies between the most and the least favored types of alternative assessment 45 Table 4.6 Problems in applying alternative assessment .46 Table 4.7 Problems among different sub-groups 46 ABSTRACT This study investigates alternative assessment in ESP classes at Hue University It aims to explore teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment, how teachers apply this assessment method, whether they encounter any challenges and seek suggestions to cope with these challenges The data were collected through questionnaires and interviews Forty ESP teachers participated in the study, and they all were delivered the questionnaires Five of them were then invited for in-depth interviews Data from the questionnaires were analyzed by means of SPSS and categorized into three groups consisting of teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment, the practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes and the problems faced by teachers when applying this assessment method Data from the interviews were then analyzed to double check with those of the questionnaires The findings indicate that although teachers have some minor misunderstanding about alternative assessment, they have highly positive attitude towards it However, the application of alternative assessment in ESP classes differs among teachers and among classes While some teachers manage to apply alternative assessment in their classes, others feel discouraged and tend to avoid this assessment method In other words, for the time being, alternative assessment is not very widely applied in ESP classes at Hue University This can be explained by a number of challenges originated from teachers, students and alternative assessment itself From the findings, some implications are drawn out for teachers, students and college administrators They are recommended to be aware of the importance and influence of alternative assessment on the teaching-learning process They are also suggested to make necessary changes in both attitude and practice to better alternative assessment It is hoped that such effort will bring great contribution to the success of alternative assessment in particular and ESP teaching-learning process in general CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter briefly introduces the context of the problem It begins with the background of the study (1.1) The next sections present the rationale of the study (1.2), its objectives and research questions (1.3) It ends with the scope (1.4) and organization of the study (1.5) 1.1 Background of the study For a long time, testing and assessment were viewed as an independent process and were “separated from teaching and learning, both theoretically and in practice” (Harrison, 1983, p.1) However, researchers have proven that, far from being divorced from each other, testing and teaching are closely interrelated As a means of evaluation and measurement, testing and assessment help teachers receive feedback from students, and thus help teachers adjust their way of teaching (Heaton, 1998) Therefore, together with syllabus design and classroom activities, more and more attention is being paid to testing and assessment Prior to the early 1950s, there was no language testing research and therefore, language testing followed “whatever principles of testing available in the humanities or social sciences” (Brown, 2001, p.392) From the early 1950s through the late 1960s, when contractive analysis became a “thriving discipline”, testing focused on “specific language elements” such as grammatical, phonological or lexical contrasts between two languages (Lado, as cited in McNamara, 2000) Dating from the late 1960s to the 1980s, testers have realized that “the whole of the communicative event was considerably greater than the sum of its linguistic elements” (Clark, as cited in Brown, 2004, p.8), which has resulted in a shift into the third period called the “integrative-sociolinguistic” period According to this viewpoint, testing and assessment should be designed in such a way that can test not only grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, but also illocutionary and strategic competence (Brown, 2001) By the mid 1980s, the focus of language testing has been on designing communicative tasks which required a special correspondence between language test performance and language use (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) Surely, such assessment is time-consuming and challenging both assessment experts and classroom teachers, yet it is worth trying because students should be assessed as they perform actual or simulated real-world tasks Therefore, together with the increasing concern about communicative competence in language learning, there is also a trend to supplement traditional tests with more authentic and meaningful assessment practices As a result, there is the advent of what is called “alternative assessment” 1.2 Rationale of the study It is commonly thought that both testing and assessment belong to “experts” and teachers have nothing to be concerned with regarding this field In fact, this viewpoint is not true It is natural that test-makers need to develop a sound understanding of the principles as well as the practice of language assessment for their own benefit However, many other people working in the field of language study such as teachers and students will certainly have reasons to participate in the discourse of this area Each teacher knows about his/ her students as well as his/ her class and therefore can choose or design the assessment tools that both suit his/ her students’ motivations and classroom objectives For this reason, it is strongly agreed by Heaton (1988), Brown (1994), and McNamara (2000) that teachers must have some professional knowledge and if possible, be involved in the design of assessment programs in order to make their teaching more effective As an English teacher, having a deep understanding about testing and assessment not only enables the author to design an appropriate way of assessment to her students but can also help her adjust the way of teaching Testing and assessment play a powerful role in language teaching and learning in terms of the backwash effect That is, a suitable and carefully designed assessment program will have a positive backwash, while an improper one may lead to a negative attitude towards language teaching and learning Therefore, when there is an alternative in teaching method, there must be an alternative in the way of assessment For the time being, the transformation of education from term-based to credit-based system in Vietnam demands to re-examine assessment practices Because the creditbased training program requires students to spend a lot of time learning by themselves, teachers need to build a new assessment method that can measure or help students self-measure precisely their performance in learning over a period of time, which cannot be applied by using a timed multiple-choice or a one-period test Besides, since "traditional methods of assessment have contributed to students' pursuits of grades rather than pursuits of learning" (Berenson, 1995, p.184), students have long been used to learning just to memorize and trying to reproduce what the teacher is doing They not learn to become independent thinkers Our goal as educators is to teach our students to become life-long learners Accordingly, a continuous, performance-based assessment tool that can reveal students’ critical thinking and their ability to solve open-ended tasks is called for For these reasons, “alternative assessment” which can meet the above requirements have become an advent in the field of language testing and assessment It has been investigated in various studies conducted by Snyder, J., Elliott, S., Bhavnagri, N P & Boyer, J (1993), Pollari, P (1999), Makarchuk, D (2003), Zhao, X and Kim, J (2003), Kavaliauskiene, G., Kaminskiene, L & Anusiene, L (2007), Lewis, M A (2008) Except for Kavaliauskiene’s study which examines alternative assessment in ESP, most of the aforementioned studies are case studies whose emphases are on alternative assessment in ELT context They explore some specific types of alternative assessment and try to pinpoint those that best suit their particular context Very few of them focus on examining teachers’ attitude and perception about alternative assessment Finally, in Vietnam, while much attention has been paid to CLT approach and its application in EFL environment, there is little concern about ESP context except for ESP syllabus design In terms of language learning, there have been few studies related to testing and assessment in EFL environment, much less has been found in ESP context In fact, there has so far been only one study on alternative assessment in EFL environment (Truong, 2007) There is a lack of research on teachers’ perception and the reality of applying alternative assessment in ESP context Trying to find out the answer to the above question is, therefore, the focus of the present study 1.3 Objectives and research questions This study intends to reveal the issues most concerning to the teachers at ESP department The result would give a clear answer on the teachers’ perceptions as well as their practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes The objectives of this study are:  To raise teachers’ awareness of alternative assessment and its importance  To find out the practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes at Hue University  To get a deeper understanding of alternative assessment, which is very essential for my colleagues and me in our teaching career  To provide some practical and sufficient suggestions on making alternative assessment more effective in ESP classes The research questions stem directly from the conceptual framework, literature review, and objectives of the study Specifically, this study is conducted to answer the following questions: What are teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment in ESP classes? How is alternative assessment used in ESP classes at Hue University? What problems teachers encounter in applying alternative assessment in ESP classes at Hue University? 10 assessment in Vietnam in general and at Hue University in particular Meanwhile, there have not been many workshops or training sections about language assessment, much less about alternative assessment Since teachers are inadequately trained, their misunderstanding is understandable To sum up, teachers had highly attitude towards alternative assessment and its effectiveness in ESP classes However, regarding teachers’ knowledge about alternative assessment, while a majority showed their expertise, some were still uncertain or confused to distinguish alternative assessment from other types of assessment 5.1.2 The practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes Despite all the benefits as well as teachers’ high attitude towards it, alternative assessment is not widely chosen and applied in ESP classes at Hue University The findings show that even when alternative assessment was applied, it was not chosen as the sole method of assessment Usually, it was combined with the traditional assessment Some teachers even neglected alternative assessment The only method they used was the traditional Reasons for such neglectfulness are both objective and subjective The objective reason originates from the curriculum with the required format of assessment and evaluation Accordingly, the final examination must be designed and conducted following the traditional method of assessment, namely multiplechoice, true-false, gap-filling exercises, etc Obviously, the final exam test is fixed in format and is out of teachers’ control There is absolutely no place for alternative assessment All that teachers can manage is the assessment for both mid-term test and participation which are more changeable and flexible in format The subjective reason is mainly related to teachers’ thinking, which was specially clarified and proved via the in-depth interviews Some who strongly believed in the necessity and advantages of alternative assessment to their students and the ESP courses always tried to apply it in their classes no matter how hard it was However, these only accounted for a very small number of the respondents Others who were 58 aware of alternative assessment’s benefits but were afraid of the difficulties in its application often combined both the alternative and traditional methods of assessment Several teachers admitted that they ignored alternative assessment and always employed the traditional one As for the most common types of alternative assessment in ESP classes, the results indicate that some types of alternative assessment were more favored Specifically, games, group discussions and presentations were the three most popular classroom activities in ESP classes First and above all, they are not too difficult to apply Second, they encourage students’ autonomy in learning and help emphasize that students can learn from each other and from other sources rather than teachers Finally, in ESP context, it is necessary for students to achieve knowledge but it is more essential for them to acquire living skills Therefore, these types of assessments are completely suitable because they provide chances for students’ cooperation and competition, the two crucial skills in real life 5.1.3 Challenges teachers faced when applying alternative assessment In the current context of ESP classes at Hue University, teachers encountered a number of challenges in applying alternative assessment In general, they all originated from the three relevant subjects namely teachers, students as well as alternative assessment itself and can be divided into two main groups: subjective and objective challenges They are the main causes that deter teachers from applying alternative or make them reluctant to use this assessment tool Regarding the three involved subjects of teachers, students and alternative assessment, data from the questionnaire reveal that problems arising from teachers themselves took the highest amount whereas those from alternative assessment requirements accounted for the lowest This is rather surprising since it has been long assumed that the difficulty in applying alternative assessment was due to the mismatch between the curriculum and the challenging requirements of alternative assessment 59 As for the interviews, problems from these three subjects were also found but they interconnect with each other and could be divided into two groups of subjective and objective challenges The subjective challenges were closely related to students’ attitude towards ESP learning and teachers’ viewpoint on teaching as well as the duty of teachers in class Concerning students, there seems to be some reluctance or their lack of passion in English in general and ESP learning in particular As a result, they were uneager to participate in any challenging activities, much less in alternative assessment because it is so demanding and difficult Regarding teachers, the worries were closely from the hard work of preparation and the impartiality in making judgment The objective challenges were mainly due to the large number of students in each class, students’ language ability as well as the nuances of alternative assessments Large classes made teachers avoid such a time-consuming way of evaluation as alternative assessment They would prefer a quicker and easier method like the traditional one Besides, students’ low and mixed levels also prevented teachers from choosing the demanding and challenging alternative assessment Finally, alternative assessment itself, which is quite subjective in marking, time-consuming and noisy in application, also discouraged teachers from using it as the primary means of assessment in their ESP classes In short, this study brings an overall picture of alternative assessment in ESP classes at Hue University It emphasizes the importance and necessity of alternative assessment in ESP context Teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment were proved positive However, the practice of alternative assessment in ESP classes was not frequent and lower than expectation due to a number of both subjective and objective challenges Much energy, effort and enthusiasm will be needed to make the application of this assessment method more effective 60 5.2 Implications Based on the findings of this piece of research, some implications for teachers, students and the college administrators are drawn out with the hope to contribute to the effectiveness of alternative assessment in ESP classes 5.2.1 For teachers It is implied from the findings that in order to make alternative assessment in ESP classes more effective, teachers should make some changes It is worth noticing here that alternative assessment is classroom activities carried out by students and assessed by teachers Therefore, of the three subjects of teachers, students and college administrators, teachers are of the greatest importance Teachers understand their classes best and are directly responsible to choose and carry out classroom activities Besides, except for the final examination, the mid-term assessment which accounted for forty percent of the results is designed and conducted by teachers Therefore, they have total right to choose classroom activities and set reasonable weightings between them Furthermore, as shown in the findings, among the obstacles to prevent teachers from applying alternative assessment, problems from teachers themselves were far more serious than those from students or alternative assessment were Therefore, it is thought that once there are changes from teachers, the situation will change First, although teachers’ perceptions about alternative assessment were proved positive, there is some misunderstanding about alternative assessment Therefore, it is suggested that teachers study assessment and evaluation in general and alternative assessment in particular to have an insight into the most suitable method of assessment for their classes Besides, having a deep and thorough understanding of alternative assessment also helps teachers find the best way in application in their particular classes Second, teachers need to work in collaboration with each other, at least in terms of the assessment and evaluation process It is advisable that teachers cooperate or consult each other in choosing and designing assessment activities This can help 61 minimize the differences in assessment between teachers and between classes, thus avoid envy or unnecessary comparison among students from different classes Teachers’ collaboration also provides opportunities for better understanding of alternative assessment as well as reduces time and energy loss Next, many teachers commented that alternative assessment is time-and-energyconsuming while they received no financial encouragement or support from college administrators This discouraged them from applying alternative assessment in their classes However, it is worth noticing that teaching and assessment have a close relationship to each other That is to say if teaching is to be effective, the assessment process should be appropriate Therefore, it is strongly recommended that teachers should apply alternative assessment in their ESP classes because it is the most appropriate method of assessment to meet the demand of the communicative approach In other words, although alternative assessment takes time and energy, it deserves the endeavor and teachers should apply it for the sake of their students and of themselves Besides, teachers need to explain the importance and necessity of alternative assessment to their students They should encourage and support their students if necessary so that students become familiar with this new assessment method Once students are conscious of the benefits of alternative assessment on their learning, they are believed to be willing and eager to take part in the process Another suggestion is that teachers should avoid ambiguity while keep consistency in the application of alternative assessment First, the alternative assessment plan has to be included in the course description of each unit It should also be introduced to students at the beginning of the semester This aims at making students ready for what they are expected to Besides, teachers have to set very clear pre-determined criteria for their alternative assessment and try to be consistent with these criteria This is one of the most important criteria to decide the success of alternative assessment If the criteria of assessment and grading are not clearly set beforehand, students may get confused 62 and not know how to fulfill the tasks On the other hand, if the criteria are not consistently followed, students will be let down In either situation, students’ results are in danger of being seriously affected Furthermore, it is also implied from the findings that whatever the tasks are, they must not be too difficult for students to fulfill Remember that they are non-majored English students If the tasks are too challenging or demanding, students may be discouraged or have negative attitude towards this subject Finally, it is advisable that teachers choose suitable types of alternative assessment for their ESP classes As shown in the findings, there are different types of alternative assessment appropriate for different purposes Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses Depending on the number and levels of students in each class, the purpose of the tasks, the content of the lessons, etc teachers will choose the most suitable type or combine them together so that the assessment process can reflect students’ language competence and at the same time be totally in accordance with the teaching process 5.2.2 For students Students are directly involved in assessment and evaluation because they are one of the two main components of the teaching-learning process In order to make alternative assessment in ESP classes more effective, students are supposed to seriously take the following suggestions into consideration First, the shift of education from term-based to credit-based system has emphasized the role of students’ autonomy in learning Beside knowledge, alternative assessment helps assess students’ performance, enthusiasm, cooperation and autonomy in learning, thus matches the new method in teaching It is students’ duty to adjust them to this new advent To sum up, students need to be aware of and develop their autonomy in learning to meet the demand of alternative assessment in particular and the new transformation in teaching in general Second, students should notice that learning, first and above all, is for the sake of learners This awareness will bring students motivation in learning Once they are 63 motivated, it is sure that they will be happy and eager to take part in all the appointed tasks and activities, let alone alternative assessment Third, it is necessary to remember that one of the main purposes of alternative assessment is for the improvement of students rather than results oriented Therefore, it is suggested that students set the detailed objectives for themselves and try their best to achieve them They should also take responsibility for their learning and be conscious of self-assessment for their own sake Making good comparisons to have necessary and timely adjustments is the best advice for students who want to take the benefits of assessment and turn it into part of their daily activity in learning Finally yet importantly, alternative assessment encourages students’ cooperation because it is strongly believed that learning with friends and working in groups is very beneficial for students as they can learn from each other Anyway, each student has one teacher but more than fifty classmates for each subject This emphasizes the role of classmates in each individual’s learning Therefore, students should feel comfortable in asking for advice or seeking help from each other, which is not only necessary for their improvement but also enhance students’ results when being applied alternative assessment 5.2.3 For the college administrators The findings indicated that class size is one big challenge discouraging teachers from applying alternative assessment Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the college administrators should take necessary actions to reduce the number of students in each class Besides, it is implied from the findings that teachers had inadequate knowledge about assessment in general and alternative assessment in particular This will negatively affect the application of alternative assessment in ESP classes, which in turn worsens the teaching-learning process It is suggested that the college administrators organize more workshops on ESP teaching and assessment, especially alternative assessment in ESP environment to ameliorate the present 64 situation Thanks to the workshops, teachers will not only have better understanding about alternative assessment but also conduct it more effectively in their ESP classes Furthermore, the college administrators should have specific regulations with detailed criteria for assessment and evaluation process For the time being, the criterion that students at the same level must have the same way of assessment is supported Similarly, regarding alternative assessment, it must be assured to be applied simultaneously in all ESP classes Such an application will both show the professionalism in assessment and ensure the equality among classes Finally, since alternative assessment is a very demanding assessment method which takes a lot of time and energy of teachers, it is advisable that the college administrators think over and take necessary actions in terms of finance as a tool of teacher encouragement Once being encouraged, teachers will have strong force to better their application of alternative assessment in ESP classes To sum up, it is recommended that teachers, students and the college administrators make necessary changes in their thoughts and practices to make assessment in general and the practice of alternative assessment in particular more effective in ESP classes 5.3 Contribution of the study Until now, assessment and evaluation still receives inadequate attention compared to other aspects in language teaching, much less has been found in alternative assessment This study is supposed to raise teachers’ awareness of ESP teaching and alternative assessment It is also hoped that this study partly contributes to the success and achievements of ESP teaching in general and alternative assessment in ESP context in particular 5.4 Limitations Although much effort was put into this study, it is impossible to avoid certain shortcomings The insufficiency of references, first and above all, is the main 65 reason for some limitations of the study In addition, assessment and evaluation are the processes that involve in both teachers and students However, the study was conducted from teachers’ perceptions only Students’ viewpoints and opinions have not been taken into consideration, which undoubtedly contributes to other limitations Furthermore, the data from the questionnaires and interviews are underexploited Due to the researchers’ own constraints of knowledge and time, some factors were not analyzed thoroughly and deeply enough Therefore, it is hoped to have the readers’ sympathy and looked forward to receiving any contributions or constructive comments on this piece of research 5.5 Recommendations for future research Based on the limitations and constraints of the study, some recommendations are offered for future research This study was conducted to a small number of 40 language teachers only It is suggested that a similar study can be done to a larger number For example, we can spread to both language teachers and content teachers and compare the results from the two groups Further researchers can explore the same issues but spread to participants from the Northern or Southern parts of Vietnam where the perceptions and practice of alternative assessment may be different Concerning alternative assessment, students are one of the main related subjects Therefore, this study can also be carried out with another set of questionnaires and interviews for students Since assessment is closely related, it is thought that students’ perceptions about alternative assessment should be noticed and carefully taken into consideration In addition, this study is survey-based by means of questionnaires and interviews A similar study can be done with another research method such as action research or case study Finally, this study focuses on ESP context and ESP classes only Further researchers can develop the same study in EFL environment or combine both to make comparison and contrast between the two contexts 66 REFERENCES Anderson, L W (2003) Classroom Assessment: Enhancing the Quality of 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