Language assessment literacy: an uncharted area for the English language teachers in Bangladesh

Sultana Language Testing in Asia (2019) 9:1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-019-0077-8 RESEARCH Open Access Language assessment literacy: an uncharted area for the English language teachers in Bangladesh Nasreen Sultana Correspondence: nasreen.sultana@ queensu.ca; Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, 511 Union Street-Duncan McArthur Hall, Room-A106, Kingston, ON K7M5R7, Canada Abstract Language assessment literacy (LAL) is a critical field for researchers, scholars, or anyone interested in improving the language teaching environment. Understanding the basics of testing and the ability to perform testing-related activities becomes more significant in test-oriented countries. As such, in the extremely exam-oriented milieu of Bangladesh, giving tests and preparing students for high-stakes tests are the two core tasks performed by language teachers. English teachers’ readiness and ability to perform various test-related tasks determine the quality of English education in the country. In this regard, earlier studies have investigated various factors related to English language teaching. However, the assessment literacy of teachers has rarely been investigated within the context of Bangladeshi language teaching. There is no publication or broader research to understand how LAL operates in English teachers in the country. Considering the test-oriented nature of Bangladesh, it is essential to explore if the LAL of language teachers is benefitting classroom teaching and learning. Hence, this research aims to examine the nature and functionality of LAL among English teachers in Bangladesh. The study focused on two central concerns: first, whether the English teachers in the country are academically and professionally ready to perform various testing tasks; and second, how the teachers perceive LAL in their teaching practices. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method for this qualitative study. The results provided insights into how the inadequate academic and professional testing background of teachers hindered their performance in conducting assessment-related tasks and contributed to their limitations in the use of assessments to improve teaching. Based on the findings, the article concludes with suggestions that can be implemented to develop language assessment awareness of English teachers in Bangladesh. Keywords: Language assessment literacy (LAL), English language teaching (ELT), Testoriented context, Bangladesh Introduction Popham (2004) once labeled teachers’ lack of appropriate training in assessment as “professional suicide” (p. 82). Recognizing the importance of assessment literacy, language testing researchers, and other key stakeholders have been continuously promulgating the idea of language assessment literacy (LAL) in many parts of the world (Inbar-Lourie, 2008, 2013a; Malone, 2008). In Western educational settings, the assessment literacy of teachers has received attention in educational policies and research © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Sultana Language Testing in Asia (2019) 9:1 since the early 1990s (Gotch & French, 2014; Plake et al., 1993; Popham, 2013; Stiggins, 2004). In the last decade, some studies investigated various aspects of LAL, for example, how it is defined or conceptualized and how it can be developed further (Lam, 2015). However, in the context of Bangladesh, assessment literacy is still an underexplored area, especially for classroom English language teachers. Although English teachers are responsible for preparing the questions for the internal examinations that are held at the school or preparing the students for public exams, it has never been considered essential for classroom English teachers to develop the required assessment literacy. On the other hand, English is taught as a compulsory subject at school level in Bangladesh so that students become proficient users of English in real life (National Curriculum, 2012). In a different context, López and Bernal (2009) pointed out that teachers with assessment training used tests to improve teaching and learning whereas teachers without assessment training used tests to obtain grades. The inadequacy of assessment knowledge may “cripple the quality of education” (Popham, 2009, p. 43). Then, what is the situation for English teachers in Bangladesh? There is no publication that indicates or investigates the assessment literacy of English teachers in the context of Bangladesh. This paper, therefore, investigates to what extent English language teachers at the secondary level possess assessment literacy and how they perceive LAL. Brief review of LAL Generally, the knowledge, principles, and skills of language testing are known as LAL (Davies, 2008; Fulcher, 2012; Malone, 2008). Assessment literacy largely has been defined as “teachers’ understanding of assessment processes as well as their capacities to design assessment tasks, develop adequate criteria for making valid judgments on the quality of students’ performances, and understand and act upon the information that is collected through assessment” (Hay & Penney, 2013, pp. 69–70). However, the constructed language in LAL is different from its universal form, testing literacy (Giraldo, 2018). Hence, LAL incorporates knowledge of language, principles, and skills of language testing (Davies, 2008; Fulcher, 2012; Inbar-Lourie, 2013b). For this article, LAL is defined as the familiarity of language teachers with the basic ideas of testing, the ability to apply those ideas in classroom instruction, and the capacity to perform language assessment-related tasks (Inbar-Lourie, 2008; Melone, 2013; Taylor, 2009). LAL is essential for language teachers as well as other stakeholders in understanding the scope of this field (Taylor, 2009). However, Scarino (2013) argues that language teachers are the most important of all the stakeholders because they are the direct test users. Unfortunately, some experienced teachers do not possess adequate assessment knowledge (Crusana et al., 2016). A study by Tsagari and Vogt (2017) found that the sample teachers were not prepared to conduct assessment-related tasks since they had not received enough academic support from the teacher educational programs. As a result, they embraced the assessment practices of their mentors or colleagues. In this regard, Tsagari and Vogt noted that practices such as “test as you were tested” or “learning on the job” restrain teacher development and create the possibility of not implementing “published knowledge” (p. 54). This understanding is partially sup (...truncated)