Assessment Literacy or Language Assessment Literacy: Learning from the Teachers

Abstract

The conceptualization of language assessment literacy (LAL) is currently a subject of debate in the language testing community, especially with regard to the role language components play in this construct. This is part of a broader discussion of generic and discipline-specific assessment literacy. Previous research on language teachers’ LAL aimed to uncover whether self-reported assessment knowledge complies with pre-established definitions. What transpired in the current study is a move in the opposite direction: following a generic course on assessment literacy, language teachers were asked to apply the course contents to their language-teaching objectives in designing a test and a performance task. Content analysis of the assessment artifacts created by 16 English and Hebrew teachers, points at partial employment of the generic assessment features acquired, with a more scant application and consideration of language-related construct components required as part of LAL for language assessment. LAL emerged as a process-oriented phenomenon, requiring an amalgamation of AL with language-related components but also with context-relevant variables.