The Status Quo of English Language Assessment Literacy Among Iranian ESP Teachers of Computer Sciences Engineering

Kousha, Mahdi; Abbasian, Gholam-Reza; Ghalibafan, Mohammad Sadegh; Souri, Mehrdad

doi:10.22034/jespp.2024.217546

The Status Quo of English Language Assessment Literacy Among Iranian ESP Teachers of Computer Sciences Engineering

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mahdi Kousha ¹

Gholam-Reza Abbasian ²

Mohammad Sadegh Ghalibafan ³

Mehrdad Souri ⁴

¹ Department of English Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² English Language Department, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Ali University, Tehran, Iran

³ Department of English Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Shahid Sattari Aeronautical University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Department of English Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, South Tehran Branch,Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jespp.2024.217546

Abstract

Assessment is a vital aspect of the education process, and investigators have placed it at the heart of the teaching and learning process. Teachers spend a significant amount of time engaging in assessment activities to promote learning, thus, it is of paramount importance that teachers have an adequate level of assessment literacy. To shed more lights on this issue in the context of Iranian universities, this study intended to measure and describe the relative level of assessment literacy of Iranian ESP teachers of computer sciences engineering and to define the rank of each sub-scale of assessment literacy among them. This study adopted a quantitative research design and collected data from 60 Iranian ESP teachers of computer sciences engineering by responding to the "Classroom Assessment Knowledge (CAK)" scale. Analyses of the data revealed that first, Iranian teachers of computer sciences engineering did not have acceptable level of assessment literacy; second, there were significant differences among the nine sub-scales of assessment literacy; third, the ESP teachers suffered from significant deficiencies which not only indicate weaknesses in teacher education programs as far as language testing and assessment are concerned but also are persuasive enough to render specific assessment education for each group involved in foreign language teaching ESP programs. Findings can be helpful for ESP teachers, educators, assessors, and program developers.

Keywords

assessment literacy

computer sciences engineering

ESP assessment

Iranian ESP teachers