218 / 2018-08-16 20:00:48

A qualitative case study into the impact of CSE as a self-assessment tool

China's Standards of English (CSE), impact, self-assessment tool, case study

This presentation reports a qualitative case study of the impact of the CSE (China’s Standards of English) as a self-assessment tool. The study was carried out by a group of stakeholders: pre-service and in-service teachers working at educational establishments ranging from secondary school to higher education levels. Four participants were involved in the study: one university pre-service English major graduate; one in-service secondary school EFL teacher; one high school EFL teacher, and one university teacher. They were given three months to self-assess their English language proficiency following four steps:
1. Carefully read each of the CSE descriptors
2. evaluate their own English language proficiency on a one-by-one descriptor basis using three different forms: True/False; a 3-point Likert scale; and a 5-point Likert scale
3. report in written form the cognitive processes involved in completing the self-assessment
The rich data from this pilot study are still under analysis. It is expected that the study will achieve four goals:
1) To improve understanding of the pre-service and in-service teachers’ English language proficiency and shed light on their future target-language development.
2) To reveal insights on the current situations and key issues in ELT teaching, learning and assessment in China, covering three main educational stages: secondary, high school and university.
3) To investigate how the potential positive washback and impact of CSE on EFL teaching, learning and assessment in China can be optimised.
4) To trial the three evaluation forms to establish which might be the more efficient and accurate way to use CSE as a self-assessment tool for further research.
5) To provide evidence for CSE validation and implications for its further revision.