1、Formative Assessment Applied to English Teaching in A Vocational College and its EffectsFormative Assessment Applied to English Teaching in A Vocational College and its Effects 【Abstract】The author carries out a study on formative assessment and proves its effectiveness.The subjects in two classes m
2、ajored in preschool education in a vocational college are arranged to have the experiment lasting for a semester.The date proved that formative assessment is effective to improve students achievements and teachers teaching effect，which not only develops students language knowledge and skills，but als
3、o develops their respective initiative and creativity，even their cooperation and autonomy abilities. 【Key words】formative assessment； assessmentapplication； summative； higher vocational college In recent years，the foreign language world focus on language learning is not a knowledge acquisition，but s
4、kills learning.With the integration of the world economy and the frequent international cooperation，it will need a high quality worker team who have skills in English.So how to assess the students whether they have such skills is very important.while the traditional assessment and the single method
5、misguide the orientation of language skills and deviate from the basic rule of language teaching to certain extent.There has been much negative effect.Therefore，the key point in English teaching is to reform the assessment.To combine assessment with English teaching is necessary to cultivate the pot
6、entials of students and improve the ability of teachers. 1.Research Methodology 1.1 Subjects The subjects non-English majors of a vocational college.One is the experiment group （EG），The other is the control group （CG）.These non-majors are 83 students，9 male and 74 female，aged 18 to 20.They have lear
7、ned English for 6 years and they have the similar learning backgrounds.And they are arranged to have English class twice a week，each class lasting for 80 minutes. 1.2 Instruments The current experiment involves two authentic papers of PRETCO） and two questionnaire surveys. The questionnaires are ada
8、pted from “ Student-Opinion Questionnaire from the Center of Faculty Evaluation” （Cangelosi 1991：249）.The questionnaire consists of 30 items，I selected 20 from them.The quantitative means were based on interviews，portfolios，diaries，observations，teacher assessment，peer assessment，self assessment. Pra
9、ctical English Test for College（PRETCO） is a national standardized English test to determine the non-English majors language proficiency levels after two years training in high vocational college.I choose two authentic papers to compare the change s of students English proficiency levels before and
10、after the study. 2.Implementation of the study During the whole study，Teaching，guidance，learning，atmosphere and feedback are the major activities in classroom，all of which are the process of collecting information for formative assessment.And I assessed the students by teacher assessment，peer assess
11、ment，and self assessment and collected the useful information through interview，portfolio，diary，and observation. 3.Date Analysis and Discussions The results of proficiency English test and questionnaire were gathered together with Excel 2000.I used SPSS 17.0 （the Statistics Package for Social Scienc
12、e，Chinese Version） to analyze the data collected. 3.1 Influence of Formative Assessment on Language Knowledge Grasp To show the students learning progress after applying formative assessment，the EG and CG took a post-test，the test paper was the authentic PRETCO-B （June，2010）.I used the Paired T-test
13、 to capture the differences between the pre-test and the post-test for English proficiency.And the result is described as shown as below： Table 3.1Paired-samples T-test result of the scores between EG and CG Pre-test Post-test group N Mean1 SD1 Mean2 SD2 PRETCO-B test EG 38 62.271 16.994 69.661 14.5
14、64 PRETCO-B test CG 45 59.472 19.645 61.608 18.006 A mean score （Mean in brief） is used to reflect variable of central tendency and a standard deviation （SD in brief） is to reflect variable of dispersion.Table 3.1 shows the mean score of EG is 69.661，and the mean score of CG is 61.608，so the mean di
15、stance between them is 8.503.Furthermore，as P=0.0310.05，there is significant difference between the two groups in English achievement. 3.2 Influence of Formative Assessment on Language Skills Improvement Formative assessment focuses on improving students language skills，and having a all-round assess
16、ment on them.The methods of it are various which can guide the students to express their opinions by what they have learned.It is effective to improve their communicative ability.Through self-assessment，peer-assessment and teacher assessment，they can learn about their strengths and shortcoming in la
17、nguage application. In the pre-test，the compositions in the two groups showed the following features：1） commonly used short sentences.2） the vocabulary were simple.3） grammar mistakes were common.4） the arrangement was not proper.But In the post-test，the compositions in EG were much more accurate in
18、 wording than those of CG，the structures were clearer，and sentences were more perfect and complete.The handwriting in EG was also tidy and clean.Beside writing，from the interview，65.7% （N=25） of the students in EG demonstrated that they have got great progress in other language abilities. 3.3 Influe
19、nce of Formative Assessment on Learning Interest and Attitudes Improvement In order to investigate whether students learning interest and learning attitudes have changed during the research，I made a comparative study of the results from Questionnaire1 and Questionnaire2 of the two groups on item 5 “
20、I am interested in English learning.” Table 3.3Paired sample analysis on learning interest of EG and CG before and after the intervention of formative assessment Before studyQ1 After studyQ2 Groups N Mean1 SD1 Mean2 SD2 Item 5 In Q CG 45 2.4889 .7814 2.6667 1.0014 EG 38 2.4737 .8633 3.3421 .9532 Not
21、es：Q1=Questionnaire； Q2= Questionnaire As we see from Table 3.3the formative assessment brings about some positive changes to students learning interest （The mean score in EG before training is 2.4737 but after training is 3.3421），that is to say，the students become a little interested in English lea
22、rning.And with p=0.0280.05，it means that after the intervention of formative assessment，students of EG are getting more and more interested in English than those of CG.As for the CG，the mean score jump from 2.4889 to 2.6667，it also proves that as higher vocational college students they have realized
23、 the importance of English and shown interest in its learning.More students in EG take much more time to make a learning plan and pay attention to improve their learning methods during the implementation of the learning plan.They have specific learning goals and good study atmosphere.So，formative as
24、sessment has a great impact on improving students learning attitudes and interest. 3.4 Influence of Formative Assessment on Learning Strategies and Autonomy Promotion The influence of formative assessment on learning strategies and learning autonomy，I selected item 8 “I often reflect on my successes
25、 and failures in my English learning.” and item 10 “I look for opportunities to learn as much as possible in English.” to analyze.Next table is the results of the students in the two groups in Questionnaire 1 and Questionnaire 2. Table 3.4 Statistics on learning strategies and autonomy of EG and CG
26、before and after the intervention of formative assessment Scale Never or almost never Usually not Somewhat Usually Completely or almost completely Item8 in Q1 EG N=38 2 5% 10 26% 17 45% 8 21% 1 3% Item8 in Q2 EG N=38 1 3% 5 13% 11 29% 17 45% 4 10% Item8 in Q1 CG N=45 2 4% 12 27% 21 47% 9 20% 1 2% It
27、em8 in Q2 CG N=45 1 2% 10 22% 21 47% 11 25% 2 4% Item10 inQ1 EG N=38 3 8% 14 37% 14 37% 6 15% 1 3% Item10 inQ2 EG N=38 2 5% 7 19% 10 26% 16 42% 3 8% Item10 inQ1 CG N=45 3 7% 13 29% 21 47% 7 15% 1 2% Item10 inQ2 CG N=45 2 4% 12 27% 21 47% 8 18% 2 4% Scales：1=Never or almost never true of me； 2=Usuall
28、y not true of me； 3=Somewhat true of me； 4=Usually true of me； 5=Completely or almost completely true of me. From Table 3.4，we can see the differences on learning strategies and learning autonomy of EG and CG before and after the intervention of formative assessment.Before the intervention of format
29、ive assessment，students in both EG and CG lack learning strategies and learning autonomy，because there was only one student in each group who would like to often reflect on his successes and failures in his English learning and to look for opportunities to learn as much as possible in English.After
30、the intervention of formative assessment in EG，the students underwent significant changes in these aspects，showing greater English learning initiative.On item 10 “I look for opportunities to learn as much as possible in English.”，the students in EG holding a positive attitude with the percentage cha
31、nged from 18% （7 students） up to 50% （19 students）.At the same time，with the guidance of teacher and the help of classmates，students began to have regular reflection on their learning strategies through learning diaries so as to monitor their own learning plan，and find out appropriate ones for their future learning.On item 8 “I often reflect on my successes and failures in my English learning.” before the experiment 24% of the students in EG （9 students） expressed their agreement，but after the experiment，about 55% of them agreed with the statement.While there were no o
