Classroom-based Writing Assessment Literacy Components and Needs: Perspectives of In-service EFL Teachers in Iran

As second language writing established itself as an independent area of study, instruction as well as assessment of language writing has taken over a major part in English as second/ foreign language (ESL/EFL) settings. Considering the link between assessment and learning, teachers need to learn about writing assessment together with their learning of writing pedagogy to be prepared for classroom challenges. As a result, over the last few years, there have been calls regarding the importance of developing language teachers’ writing assessment literacy (WAL). Developing assessment literate writing teachers requires teacher education programs that equip prospective teachers with sound understanding of theory and practice of writing assessment. To provide EFL/ESL teachers with good assessment education, first we need to have information about current assessment courses and their needs. The purpose of this study was to provide insights into writing assessment education from the perspective of in-service EFL teachers, through a WAL questionnaire developed by the researcher and administered to 200 EFL teachers. The results showed that there might be five distinct components of WAL: Language Pedagogy, Technical skills, Scoring and Decision Making factor, Local Practice, and Principles and Concepts factor. Most teachers perceived themselves to be moderately knowledgeable in the five thematic areas. However, in some items within these five thematic areas, they found themselves to be slightly knowledgeable including knowledge of developing or using rubric or using portfolio assessment.