AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL TEACHERS' ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG LEARNERS OF ENGLISH: DOES PRACTICE MATCH THE POLICY?

On the grounds that assessment stands for a mirror of teaching and learning practices, its value cannot be ignored in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programmes as all those involved in foreign language teaching in non-native settings need constant feedback about the effectiveness of their ventures. Assessment of young learners of English has been also receiving rising attention as this group of language learners at the preliminary stages of learning a foreign language differ from adult learners in nature and thereby their assessment requires great care. While there exist continuous amendments in foreign language teaching policies nationally to improve the quality of EFL teaching and its assessment, it is significant to look inside the classrooms to realize whether the actual assessment practices reflect the performance outcomes expected by the policy documents. This paper, therefore, attempts to investigate the consistency between the ELT policy and EFL teachers' in-class practices of assessment of young learners in middle schools in the Turkish context. The study was conducted at the end of the spring term of 2017-2018 academic year with 152 EFL teachers working in middle schools in the central districts of Denizli province. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods: the quantitative method provided information about EFL teachers' preferences of item types in terms of traditional and alternative assessment types with the help of a questionnaire while the qualitative method provided information about how frequently EFL teachers assessed four skills through exam papers they used in their classrooms. Results showed inconsistency between the policy and assessment practices of EFL teachers in the study: EFL teachers tended to design traditional paper and pencil tests based on language structures and vocabulary rather than the assessment of learners' communicative competence or language skills through alternative assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]