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Utilising Formative Assessment in Malaysian ESL Classrooms DALITA DALLING…
Utilising Formative Assessment in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
DALITA DALLING & SURYANI
Introduction
In Malaysia, there are many changes in the educational transformation that happened because of the country's development along with economic growth (Kok & Aziz, 2019)
The current education transformation in Malaysia is the 2013-2025 Malaysian Education Development Plan also known as the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025
To be able to compete globally to achieve a global status, knowing English is an excellent choice to achieve it (Ilyosovna, 2020)
The recent English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: A Roadmap 2015– 2025 document, is focusing on aligning the English language courses in Malaysia to the Common European Framework of References (CEFR)
As for CEFR-aligned SBA, one of the main goals set is to use a new assessment yet summative assessments such as exams can still exist alongside formative school-based assessment, peer assessment, and learner self-assessment (Sidhu et. al, 2018).
According to Torres (2019), summative assessment makes no room for a second chance for improvement because learners are only being given by the end of a course thus their mastery of language skills are being impacted.
Problem Statement
For English, learners have to master each skill namely listening, speaking, reading and writing in order to become a proficient English user as targeted by the Malaysia’s Ministry of Education.
An exam-oriented assessment like summative assessment concentrates more on the output after the exam has been carried out.
The results have no possibility to be retrieved and this is not an exact representation of the learning process (Uri & Aziz, 2018).
Therefore, ongoing feedback should be given throughout the language skills learning process so that learners are well aware in which learning areas they have to improve more.
Torres, (2019) said in his research, summative assessment hinders the learning process because learners only receive their numerical grade to identify who passess or fails the course.
Objectives
This paper will be reviewing the impact of formative assessment on learners’ English language proficiency besides observing the possible challenges in implementing the strategy in Malaysian ESL classrooms.
Significance
Create awareness on the benefits of formative assessment in the language learning process that will give more opportunities for learners to practice their language skills, how their motivation in learning the target language will be boosted to develop their language proficiency and lastly to keep them interested in learning the target language.
Concepts
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
A variety of methods to assess pupils’ comprehension, learning needs and academic progress in their lesson.
A tool to help teachers to identify pupils’ problems in mastering the skills.
According to Van der Kleij et al. (2018, p.620), formative assessment has become a “policy pillar of educational significance”.
Sadler (1998), on his part, defined it as a kind of assessment that is intended to produce feedback on performance to enhance and accelerate learning.
Black and Wiliam (2009) also defined it as an activity which refers to all activities undertaken by teachers, and/ or by students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.
The implementation of formative assessment in the classroom
Formative assessment can be carried out through quizzes, projects, games, presentations, and group activities (materials)
Pupils will be assessed after every unit through their hands-on activities, group presentations or in class games.
Teachers can do the assessment during class because formative assessment doesn’t require an exam paper.
SBA
Teachers must assess their students' formative language skills proficiency (listening, reading, speaking and writing) as required by SBA to ensure learners can be proficient English users.
There are two modes of SBA that have been implemented in schools and conducted by teachers which are the monthly and also the end-of-term summative tests (Ong, 2010 as cited in Sidhu et.al, 2018).
The assessment can be done through many tools like observation, quizzes or tests, learners' presentation, project works or even when learners complete their tasks in everyday classrooms (Wilson & Narasuman, 2020).
SBA is a formative and also an ongoing assessment where teachers can assess learners based on varieties of assessment.
CEFR
To categorise learners’ proficiency, this framework used six levels of descriptors. There are three main groups of learners namely the proficient users (those who achieved levels C1 & C2), the independent users (those who achieved levels B1 & B2) and the basic users (those who achieved levels A1 & A2).
The roadmap was implemented in 2013 and was expected to complete in 2025 with the intention to serve the best language education starting from preschool until tertiary education (Uri & Aziz, 2018).
In the English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: A Roadmap 2015– 2025 document, the focus is on aligning the English language courses in Malaysia to the Common European Framework of References (CEFR) which was publicly introduced in Malaysia in 2013.
There are three waves stated in the Roadmap 2015-2025 in the implementation of CEFR that must be comprehended in order to achieve the aim intended (Uri & Aziz, 2018)
Discussion and Implications
Indicates how well teachers have taught the students
Assessment and evaluation create competition among students
Helps students and teachers to identify gaps and take appropriate measures of remediation
Create more conducive teaching, and learning atmosphere: as some modification to learning strategies commonly used by the teachers have been done to suit the need of the students