Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy

Alternative assessments have evolved from an epistemological change in education. They see assessment and instruction as two sides on the same coin which go hand in hand. The traditional roles of both teachers and learners are, consequently, modified which is essential for better language developmen...

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Main Author: Nava Nourdad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Sistan and Baluchestan 2017-10-01
Series:Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ijals.usb.ac.ir/article_4226_a05805b23be189d2672ae7bf34700c0b.pdf
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author Nava Nourdad
author_facet Nava Nourdad
author_sort Nava Nourdad
collection DOAJ
description Alternative assessments have evolved from an epistemological change in education. They see assessment and instruction as two sides on the same coin which go hand in hand. The traditional roles of both teachers and learners are, consequently, modified which is essential for better language development. In this line, the present study aimed at comparing the effects of portfolio and journal writing assessment on EFL learners’ autonomy. The study followed a quasi-experimental design with two study groups having a pre-test, treatment, post-test format. To this end, 39 EFL learners whose scores on PET test were one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected for the groups which were then randomly assigned for two treatment types, namely portfolio assessment (PA) and journal writing assessment (JWA). The groups’ autonomy levels were compared by one-way ANCOVA, the results of which did not reveal any significant difference in the positive effects of these two common alternative assessments. It was inferred that language teachers can take the advantage of any or both of these alternative assessment types to improve their learners’ autonomy and make them lifelong language learners. The great role of autonomy in language learning and further pedagogical implications for the findings for language learners, teachers, and curriculum developers are discussed in the paper.
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spelling doaj.art-e1ca1f9b091745b9b5c6014033b22c2d2023-02-17T06:08:35ZengUniversity of Sistan and BaluchestanIranian Journal of Applied Language Studies2008-54942322-36502017-10-019Proceedings of the First International Conference on Language Focus11112410.22111/ijals.2017.42264226Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner AutonomyNava Nourdad0University of TabrizAlternative assessments have evolved from an epistemological change in education. They see assessment and instruction as two sides on the same coin which go hand in hand. The traditional roles of both teachers and learners are, consequently, modified which is essential for better language development. In this line, the present study aimed at comparing the effects of portfolio and journal writing assessment on EFL learners’ autonomy. The study followed a quasi-experimental design with two study groups having a pre-test, treatment, post-test format. To this end, 39 EFL learners whose scores on PET test were one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected for the groups which were then randomly assigned for two treatment types, namely portfolio assessment (PA) and journal writing assessment (JWA). The groups’ autonomy levels were compared by one-way ANCOVA, the results of which did not reveal any significant difference in the positive effects of these two common alternative assessments. It was inferred that language teachers can take the advantage of any or both of these alternative assessment types to improve their learners’ autonomy and make them lifelong language learners. The great role of autonomy in language learning and further pedagogical implications for the findings for language learners, teachers, and curriculum developers are discussed in the paper.https://ijals.usb.ac.ir/article_4226_a05805b23be189d2672ae7bf34700c0b.pdflearner autonomyalternative assessmentportfolio assessmentjournal assessment
spellingShingle Nava Nourdad
Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies
learner autonomy
alternative assessment
portfolio assessment
journal assessment
title Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
title_full Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
title_fullStr Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
title_full_unstemmed Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
title_short Alternative Assessments and EFL Learner Autonomy
title_sort alternative assessments and efl learner autonomy
topic learner autonomy
alternative assessment
portfolio assessment
journal assessment
url https://ijals.usb.ac.ir/article_4226_a05805b23be189d2672ae7bf34700c0b.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT navanourdad alternativeassessmentsandefllearnerautonomy