Formative Assessment in Language Teaching at University Level: Teachers’ Understanding and Practice

Formative assessment is an important dimension of teaching reform, and so introducing formative assessment into teaching is of great importance for transforming students’ performance. It is also important to explore teachers’ understanding and practices of formative assessment. The present research therefore examined how university English teachers understand and apply formative assessment, and their motivation for adopting formative assessment through qualitative interview methods. It focused on the problems and difficulties of applying formative assessment in university English teaching in China, and possible improvement measures. The study found that university English teachers have a biased understanding and practice of formative assessment; most of their reasons for adopting formative assessment pointed to teaching management rather than to improving teaching, and students’ subjectivity in assessment was ignored. Several of the interviewed teachers with doctoral degrees had research interests in teaching and learning; therefore, teachers’ understanding of formative assessment is likely related to their education and training experiences. This paper discusses the reasons for the findings and proposes possible measures to solve the problems.