Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2024. ISBN: 978-604-82-8175-5
574
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
Le Thi Phuong Lan
Thuyloi University, email: lanltp@tlu.edu.vn
1. INTRODUCTION
Formative assessment is a pivotal educational
practice that has drawn the attention of
researchers and educators worldwide. It serves
as a teaching tool for both teachers and
students to increase the efficiency of the
learning process.
This study aims to examine the theory of
formative assessment and then offer some
activities related to formative assessment for
language teachers to apply in their classes.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
This is a qualitative literature review in
which the author synthesizes the materials
from all related papers on the topic of
formative assessment.
3. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT VERSUS
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
There are two broad categories of
assessment: formative and summative ones.
It is important to distinguish the two kinds of
teaching tools so that educators can utilize
each kind appropriately.
Formative assessment refers to an
instructional tool in which student achievement
is analyzed and used by three agents,
including the teachers, peers, and the student
to make better teaching decisions for the next
steps in the educational process (Black &
Wiliam, 2009). Formative assessment is an
“ongoing, dynamic” process that happens
before summative assessment during an
instructional unit (Chappuis, 2007). On the
other hand, summative assessment reflects
and evaluates students’ learning results at the
end of class (Chappuis, 2007).
4. BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
4.1. Benefits
According to Gikandi et al. (2011),
formative assessment can bring about many
advantages as follows:
4.1.1. Clear goals and objectives
Formative assessment helps teachers
identify their lesson goals more clearly. By
using this tool of teaching, teachers better
understand students’ confusions as the lesson
progresses. Therefore, they can adjust the
teaching techniques accordingly.
4.1.2. Data-driven decisions
Formative assessment facilitates data
collection, which is useful for making data-
driven decisions. Based on the data gathered,
the teacher will make sound decisions to help
students succeed.
4.1.3. Increasing student engagement
Students have opportunities to engage in
collaborative teaching and learning
environments by taking part in activities
related to formative assessment. By
connecting the learning goals to realistic
scenarios, teachers help foster students’
natural curiosity.
Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2024. ISBN: 978-604-82-8175-5
575
4.1.4. Self-regulated learners
By implementing formative assessment,
teachers create opportunities for students to
review and correct their work, contributing to
improving their independence. Thus, they can
become more autonomous learners.
4.1.5. Improving academic achievement
Students have opportunities to make use of
the feedback through the practice of formative
assessment. Hence, they can understand more
about the requirements of their task and
work, correct their mistakes, and improve
their academic achievement.
4.1.6. Enhanced student motivation
Another advantage of formative assessment
is the effect on students’ motivation. When
students stay focused and understand their
goals, their performance can improve. The
more competent students feel, the more
motivated they are.
4.1.7. Address learning gaps
Formative assessments can help both
teachers and students identify learning gaps
so that they can have comprehensive plans to
fill their learning gaps.
4.2. Drawbacks
According to Tunnel (2021) available at
https://educationadvanced.com/blog/formative-
assessment-pros-and-cons, there are also some
drawbacks of formative assessment. Sometimes,
it is time-consuming to implement this kind
of teaching practice. It can also create
complex challenges for certain students.
5. ACTIVITIES RELATED TO FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT IN AN ENGLISH
SPEAKING CLASS
From the author’s experience and Snelling
(2023), I would like to present the following
formative assessment activities:
5.1. Exit tickets
Exit tickets help the teacher find out how
well the class understood each day's lesson,
so she knows whether to explain more the
next day, or move on. They can also help
students self-assess their progress. One exit
ticket takes about five minutes. The teacher
needs a slip of paper, or an online survey.
Students respond to a few simple prompts,
for example rating from one to ten how well
they understand, or writing one question
about the day's lessons. The teacher collects
exit tickets at the end of every class.
5.2. One minute write up
The purpose of this activity is to help
students have self-assessment about the
knowledge that they gain at the end of the
lesson. The time for this activity is one to
three minutes. The teacher lets students
answer, write down their information as
much as they can within the time limit. The
teacher can ask students to answer some
questions like: “What was the most important
thing to learn today, and why? Did anything
surprise you? If so, what was it?” The teacher
can let students discuss and do it in pairs.
5.3. Word clouds
The purpose of this activity is to help
students assess what they have learned by
answering questions online. The time for this
activity is up to five minutes. The teacher
prepares the questions with the link
https://www.mentimeter.com/features/word-
cloud. Students then can log into the link or
scan the QR code to answer the questions.
The answers by all the students will be
visualized as a word cloud so that it is easy to
regconize the trends.
5.4. "Mock" presentations or role-plays
The word "mock" means pre-official. In
this activity, before students have to give
their formal presentation or present their role-
play, teachers encourage them to do this in
front of another group first. The audience
Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2024. ISBN: 978-604-82-8175-5
576
then gives constructive feedback to the
performing one. The presenting group
incorporates the relevant feedback and
practices more to make improvements before
the official formal one.
5.5. Fish bowl
This activity helps the teacher assess
students’ knowledge about the lesson and
find out what the teacher needs to explain
further. The time for this activity is about 15
minutes. The teacher prepares cards of A5
size for students. The teacher asks students to
write the questions for the lesson that they do
not know the answers. They then put all the
questions in a box or container (like a fish
bowl). After that, the teacher asks students to
work in pairs and gives each pair two
questions, requesting them to discuss and
write down the answers on the opposite side
of the paper. If they do not know the answers
to the questions, they can leave the paper
blank. All the paper is collected in the box.
Then, the teacher takes out cards, reads aloud
the questions and answers, and discusses
them with the whole class.
5.6. Post-presentation comment cards
Teachers can give audience members a
comment card with some requirements, for
example:
Share two positive comments about the
presentation. What did the individual or
group do well? (For example, "I learned a lot
about water pollution.")
Offer two suggestions for improvement.
How could the individual or group enhance
their performance? (For example, "Face the
audience when you present.")
Students can learn from such comments to
withdraw their experiences. This is a kind of
peer assessment.
5.7. Reflective learning journals
It takes about 15 minutes to answer them.
Teachers need a notebook and a pen. The
purpose of these journals is that students
think about their learning, strengths, and
weaknesses deeply, and they are in charge of
their own learning. They write about their
observations, feelings, experiences, and
important thoughts. They answer questions
like what they did, how they did, why and
how they felt.
6. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, formative assessment plays
an important part in creating a responsive and
dynamic learning environment for students. It
helps give continuous feedback, encourages
students’ self-reflection, and facilitates
learning gap identification in order to help
students master the content knowledge in a
collaborative learning environment. Hopefully,
this research will help teachers of English
gain deeper understanding of formative and
be equipped with useful activities related to
formative assessment to improve their
teaching efficiency.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing
the theory of formative assessment.
Educational Assessment, Evaluation and
Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.
[2] Chappuis, S. & Chappuis, J. (2007). The
best value in formative assessment.
Educational leadership: Informative
assessment, 65(4).
[3] Gikandi, J. W., Morrow, D., & Davis, N. E.
(2011). Online formative assessment in
higher education: A review of the literature.
Computers & Education, 57(4), 2333-2351.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.06.004.
[4] Tunnel, L. (2021). https://education advanced.
com/blog/formative-assessment-pros-and-cons.
[5] https://www.mentimeter.com/features/word-cloud.
[6] Snelling, S. (2023). https://bedrock learning.
org/literacy-blogs/19-creative-activities-for-
formative-assessments/.