Teacher-Based Curriculum-Embedded Assessment in an EFL Testing Culture

It is far from easy to practice assessment for learning in a test-driven teaching context where institutional and cultural constraints often discourage teacher practitioners from further action. The present study investigates an innovative assessment practice undertaken by an EFL teacher of an oral English course at a mainland Chinese university in an effort to confront the testing culture and make assessment function more for her students’ learning. The study focuses on a form of curriculum-embedded assessment and explores how the assessment interacts with learning and how it is perceived by the learners. Using qualitative data from interview and questionnaires, the study found the various assessment tasks as implemented brought to students a good many opportunities to develop their oral English skills and gave them a sense of their progress. However, the students did not see all tasks as equally valuable, and they also raised questions about an assessment regime rewarding effort at the expense of ability. The paper concludes that the innovation was well worth the effort but required more frequent interactions between the teacher and students in order to win more acceptance from the students in advance and to be able to support them while they were engaged in the assessment.