A MISSING LINK OF THE CURRICULUM: WHY DO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER TRAINERS IN VIETNAM NEED LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT LITERACY?

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2023-0076

Abstract

This current study explored the status quo of language assessment literacy among Vietnamese language teacher trainers who carried out the mission of the assessment reform set by the National Foreign Languages Project. Inspired and informed by Gu’s (2012) [1] core components of teachers’ assessment that language teachers should develop, this study collected interview data from 16 teacher trainers of English who were at the forefront of the reform. Document analysis of policy guidelines and curricula was employed. Theme-based analysis was used to analyze the data through Nvivo 12 software to measure the perceived understanding of assessment literacy among the participants. Major findings revealed that the majority of participating language teachers employed assessment of learning (summative assessment or tests) during their teaching. Little attention was paid to assessment for learning (formative assessment) practices. It is suggested that these teacher trainers may lack core components of language assessment literacy, which include teachers’ understanding of language competence and curriculum. For language teacher trainers to improve their assessment literacy, consistent and sustained training should be needed from both top-down and bottom-up processes. The authors argue that there is a missing link in the curriculum, which requires stakeholders, including English teacher trainers, and English teachers to be assessment literate. Thus they can understand the theoretical issues of assessment and know how to employ these issues in practice, thereby better implementing the curriculum.