Investigating Language Assessment Knowledge of EFL Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide an overall picture regarding general and skill-based Language Assessment Knowledge (LAK) level of English teachers working in Turkish higher education context by using Language Assessment Knowledge Scale (LAKS) developed by Olmezer-Ozturk and Aydin (2018). The scale including 60 items with four constructs was completed by 542 EFL teachers working at schools of foreign languages. The statistical findings revealed that in terms of LAK level of the teachers, the participants got, on average, 25 out of 60. The results of one sample t-test revealed that the score the teachers got from the scale was significantly lower than half of the total score. It was also found that the teachers were the most knowledgeable in assessing reading whereas they had the lowest score in assessing listening. Besides, except for being a testing office member, no significant impact of demographic features was found on LAK level of the participants. Finally, the present study offers several suggestions both for future studies and for policy makers to improve EFL teachers' language assessment literacy on assessing each skill.