外语教师语言测评素养再探--基于对语言测试专家的访谈

Revisiting Language Assessment Literacy:Based on Interviews with Language Assessment Experts

结合相关文献,通过深度访谈我国外语测评领域的10名专家学者,梳理出我国外语教师语言测评素养的盲区和薄弱环节,提取出语言测评素养构念发展的新动态和新外延,提出语言测评素养构念的修正模型,包括语言测评知识、语言测评能力、语言测评原理和语言测评的接受度。同时,对提升语言测评素养的重点和难点进行分析,以冀对各教育阶段外语教师语言测评素养发展提供借鉴和参考。

In a traditional sense,language assessment literacy(LAL)refers to the extent to which teachers are familiar with language assessment theories,techniques and ethical issues.The existing literature on LAL can be generally summarized into four strands.First,a host of researchers endeavor to provide the definition and the construct of LAL;in particular,how LAL should be included.Second,the relationships between LAL and teacher development have also been vigorously probed into,ranging from language assessment textbook evaluation to the effectiveness of LAL training for pre-and in-service teacher professional development.Third,how to foster and enhance LAL among language teachers has also invited much concern,especially the methods of enhancing inservice teachers’LAL and the extents to which different stakeholders should develop their LAL.Fourth,the standards of LAL were investigated as well.In this strand,the standards and the scales that measure teachers’LAL were well documented.However,with the development of language assessment research in the Chinese EFL context,the construct of LAL is ushered into a new phase of evolution,where the existing notion seems less powerful to meet the requirements of teacher development in the new era.Therefore,the present study was set to address two research questions:a)What is the construct of LAL in the context of English language education in China?b)What are the fundamental considerations and challenges in fostering and enhancing LAL?In order to address the above questions,the researcher of this study conducted semi-structured interviews with ten language assessment experts in China to extract the new developments of LAL construct as they perceive.The interviewees have extensive experience in language test development and validation as well as pre-service language teacher training.Each interviewee was inquired about the key elements of LAL,the status quo of LAL in China and the challenges of fostering and enhancing teachers’LAL in the new era.All the collected data were processed via the qualitative analyzer NVivo 10.0 and thematic analysis was conducted to classify the related themes into different groups for further investigation.In response to the first research question,it was found that,apart from the constituents of the LAL construct documented in the extant literature,language assessment experts in China also lay emphasis on teachers’English language proficiency as well as their receptivity of receiving LAL in-service training.Therefore,this study proposes that in the Chinese EFL context,LAL can be perceived from four aspects,namely teachers’language assessment knowledge,language assessment ability,language assessment principles and their receptivity of having LAL training.Language assessment knowledge refers to the basic guidelines of language assessment,such as validity and reliability.Language assessment ability is more concerned with an operational sense,where the practices of designing and developing a test and test items are included.Language assessment principles refer to how test results should be reported and communicated,how language tests should be used as well as how decisions can be appropriately made in different educational contexts.In a broader sense,these four aspects can be further extended to four elements.They are respectively linguistic knowledge,language proficiency and research literacy,educational measurement principles and beliefs and attitudes.When it comes to the second research question,the interview data reveal three crucial aspects of fostering and enhancing LAL in China.The most important is to empower teachers regarding their abilities of item and test writing,which requires extensive hands-on practice.What also seems crucial are distinguishing different stakeholders’LAL profiles and promoting different ways and methods of testing and assessment.It was also found that to foster teachers’LAL regarding the above aspects,fundamental considerations should be given to what should be included in LAL development,how to develop and evaluate its effectiveness and how to overcome certain practical constraints in the process of enhancing LAL in the Chinese EFL context.In conclusion,by conducting interviews with language assessment experts in China and by referring to a wealth of existing literature reviewed,this study elaborates on the weaknesses of fostering LAL and language assessment experts’perception of LAL in the new era,based on which a revised model of LAL is brought about.It has to be admitted that though a fair representativeness of interviewees was attempted,there might still be certain flaws in expert sampling.However,the proposed model of LAL in China would be expected to provide useful directions of teacher development for English teaching practitioners across different educational stages.In future research,more explorations will be made as to how to specify the concrete LAL details for different stakeholders,such as testing policy makers and education administrators of various levels.In addition,more light will also be shed on how to foster different stakeholders’LAL and how effective different modes and channels of training will be.