The Effect of Formative Assessment on Iranian Elementary EFL Students’ Writing Achievement and Writing Self-Efficacy[Latin Thesis]

Farnaz Kermanshahi

The current explanatory mixed-methods study compared the effects of formative assessment on Iranian EFL learners writing achievement and writing self-efficacy at elementary level. Moreover, learners’ perspective towards implementing formative assessment was qualitatively studied. For the quantitative phase, 51 male and female Iranian EFL learners, selected via convenience sampling from two English Language institutes were assigned to the experimental (n=25) and control (n=26) groups receiving formative assessment from the instructor. At the beginning and at the end of the sessions, a self-efficacy questionnaire was given to both groups as pre-test and post-test. Also ten writing tasks, the first one as pre-test and the last as post-test, were administered throughout ten sessions of treatment. For qualitative phase of the study 10 participants of the experimental group took part in semi-structured interviews. A series of ANCOVA analyses revealed that formative assessment improves writing ability. FA also increased writing self-efficacy among Iranian EFL learners equally. Furthermore, the results of the deductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that learners had a positive attitude towards FA methodology with its merits outweighing its demerits for them. Moreover, not only was this methodology preferred, but also it resulted in a higher sense of self-satisfaction among learners. However, learners listed a number of demerits of formative assessment including its subjectivity and being time consuming. The results of the present study point at the advantages of implementing FA in elementary classes; although, both learners and instructors must be aware of its shortcomings.