Developing Classroom Assessment Literacy of Teachers of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages 

 

Rowena Liu

 

MEd Candidate, Queen’s University

 

 

Context: The past two decades have witnessed a growing number of non-Chinese speakers learning Chinese as a Foreign/Second Language (CFL/CSL). This has placed a great need in the number of qualified teachers of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL). The Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban, 2007) published 10 Standards for these TCSOL teachers, in which Standard 7 listed detailed requirements for language teachers in regard to assessment. Assessment, Classroom-Based Assessment (CBA)especially, plays an important role in teaching and learning (e.g. Johnson and Johnson, 1998; Rupp, 2008). Unfortunately, previous studieshave demonstrated that there are a considerable number of teachers who do not have sound knowledge base to implement appropriate CBA practices (e.g. Bachor, & Baer, 2001; Popham, 2009).Thus, by reviewing literatures, the current study will be making efforts in constructing aclassroom-based assessment knowledge framework of TCSOL teachers.

 

Rationale: CBA, compared with standard large-scale assessment, serves a crucial role in teaching and learning. It provides teachers with the most updated and instant feedback about the effects of teaching methods and students’ learning outcomes. Well-designed CBA could also motivate, guide and promote students’ learning. On the contrary, if conducted in an inappropriate way, or poorly designed, CBA not only could not play a supportive role to teachers and students, but also may undermine the process of teaching and learning. To ensure the supporting role of classroom assessment for learning, teachers should be well equipped with assessment knowledge and related issues to develop sound assessment knowledge before they conduct assessment in classrooms. A number of studies have been done in describing and exploring teachers’ CBA knowledge and practices in the past few years (e.g. Hu, Cheng, & Rogers, 2004; Mertler, 2005, 2009; Newfields, 2007; Siegel, &Wissehr, 2011; Yang, 2007), however, less research has been found in teachers in CFL/CSL context. Obviously, TCSOL teachers’ CBA knowledge and skills comprise layers of CBA literacy skills in other contexts, e.g. English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL), but require additional competencies in light of the characteristic of Chinese language. Thus, it is needed to constructa knowledge framework of CBA of these TCSOL teachers.

 

Procedure and Conclusion: The construction of TCSOL teachers’ CBA knowledge framework will be based on the previous studies in teachers’ CBA literacy, with a strong emphasis on CFL/CSL context. The framework will be composed byseveral aspects, e.g. teachers’ knowledge about the purposes, appropriate methods, and procedures of conducting CBA in teaching CFL/CSL, teachers’ awareness of predicting the potential problems which might occur in CBA, teachers’ ability to interpret CBA results, and teachers’ ability on how to motivate students to learn through CBA.

 

Significance of the Study: This study will not only provide a CBA knowledge framework for TCSOL teachers, which is the basis of implementing effective CBA, but also inform theeducators in TCSOL teacher training programs and other stakeholders to better prepare and equip TCSOL teachers with a sound CBA knowledge base.