Article summary

Formative Assessment as a Component of the Future English Teacher Training

Marina Viktorovna Klimenko & Larisa Arkadyevna Sleptsova

International Education Studies; Vol. 8, No. 8; 2015

ISSN 1913-9020 E-ISSN 1913-9039

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n8p157 

The article deals with the problem of the initial stage of the future English teacher training and forming basic professional teaching skills by means of the implementation of formative assessment methods into the process of studying.

However, in the modern paradigm of scientific knowledge the anthropocentric approach to the conversation focuses on understanding the relations of the language and thinking, that makes it a starting point of the student’s pedagogical process. The implementation of the pedagogical component into the process of future teachers’ training has been carried out by many  methodologists and educators (L. Shulman, S. Magnusson, J. S. Krajcik, H. Borko, I. L. Silberberg, W. Hüllen et al.).

Nowadays more and more teachers along with traditional assessment (test papers, credits, exams, etc.) use formative assessment, and (that is highly important, from our point of view) try to systematize and streamline these forms.

In domestic and foreign scientific and methodological journals over the last few years a significant number of articles devoted to the description, classification and analysis of the practical use of formative assessment at different stages of foreign language training have been published (Matienko, 2009; Susanina, 2014; Cross, 1995; Pharm, 2011; Teachers’ Guide to Assessment, 2011; Lamprianou & Athanasou, 2009; Djihadi, 2010; Huerta-Macias, 2002; Wiliam, 2011; Shaaban, 2000; Stiggins, 2001; Moss & Brookhart, 2009; Ghaith, 2002; Clarke, 2005; Goldin & Katz, 2008).

The assessment problem gains special importance in case of a future foreign language teacher training, as the student is to acquire the knowledge of a foreign language (in our case it is English) not only as a means of communication (English as a Foreign Language), but also as a means of professional activity (English for Specific Purposes-teaching).

The aim of the present article is to show the way formative assessment can be used when working with first-year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (the major is “Pedagogical Education”) at the stage of taking the introductory course not only as a means of linguistic competence formation, but also as a means of pre-service training.

This approach to organizing students’ speech activities at the lessons constitutes a complex means of formative

assessment which enables:

The teacher to assess the students’ level of language proficiency, the level of acquisition of rules and the ability to use them when performing the tasks;

The students to assess their groupmates;

The student to assess him/herself.

The results of the analysis of the conducted surveys indicate that at the following stages of learning the subject it is necessary to pay more attention to techniques and methods aimed at developing the students’ peer assessment.

The form of assessment at each successive stage of the work upon the training program of the subject “English Speech Practice” will vary from the teacher’s formative assessment of students, through peer assessment to self-assessment and, accordingly, to the possibility to improve one’s own learning and future professional activities as an indicator of the high language level and language proficiency.