engleski

Breathing Life into Writing: Reimagining the Assessment of Writing in L2 English

Writing may be the most difficult skill in one’s native language, let alone in a foreign one. Developing this skill requires a systematic approach that takes into account the presence and the future of writing, and assessing the written output poses a great challenge. The aim of this paper is to explore what and how teachers assess when it comes to writing in English as a foreign language, that is, to look at the trends and challenges in classroom- based language assessment. The insight is based on the results of a two-part study. The first part was conducted on the sample of 98 English language teachers in Croatia who work with learners from grade 5 to grade 8 of elementary school (students age 11–14) ; their responses were collected via an online questionnaire. The second part of the study was carried out in a focus group of six teachers who participated in a discussion on assessing writing in upper elementary school. The results of the two-part study indicate that a more authentic and dynamic approach to writing is needed, as well as that greater emphasis should be placed on self-assessment and peer assessment, which is in line with the national curricular reform that is changing the assessment landscape to a significant degree. For these reasons, in the last part of the paper we provide suggestions for improving the assessment of writing in view of using more authentic tasks and clearer criteria and sharing responsibility (self- assessment and peer assessment).

assessing writing ; authenticity ; formative assessment ; assessment as learning ; English as a foreign language

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