Speaker
Description
Learners’ engagement in learning and assessment tasks has been considered as one of the key conditions for learning gains and improvement. Numerous previous studies have suggested that while some tasks might effectively motivate learners to make learning effort, others might discourage them, leading to their ignorance or incompletion of the tasks. This study sheds light on English-Studies students’ perceptions of the ongoing and final assessment tasks commonly assigned to them during the four-year Bachelor Program. Preliminary evidence from the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data collected via a questionnaire completed by 220 junior and senior students revealed that among more than 10 assessment task types, presentations, group projects and written examinations were reported to be the top three most common tasks in the program. Students’ perceptions of the values of these tasks and how effectively these contribute to their learning motivation and improvement, however, seem to be divergent. In this presentation, detailed information of the assessment tasks types, students’ preferences and voices in relation to the usefulness of these tasks and implications for teachers’ assessment task selection, adaptation and design will be discussed.
Key words: assessment tasks, learners’ perceptions, English-majored students
Biography
Quan Nguyen is a senior lecturer in Can Tho University where he has been involved in teaching, teacher professional development and student supervision for over 24 years. He got his MA degree in Linguistics and Literature from the University of Antwerpen, Belgium and his Doctoral Degree in TESOL from the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research interests and publications focus on teacher education and professional development, teacher cognition, listening and speaking skills pedagogy, intercultural communication and teachers’ and students’ wellbeing and life values.
Phan Thanh Ngoc Phuong is a lecturer in English at the School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University. She earned her Master's degree in differentiated instruction from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium in 2014. Her research interests include TESOL, active learning, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), student-centered teaching methods, and teacher professional development. She actively integrates research with teaching practice to improve educational outcomes and support professional growth in language education.
Hua Phu Si is currently a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages, Cantho University. He earned his Master degree in educational research, evaluation and assessment at Flinders University, South Australia in 2009.His interests are students’ learning process (mainly in how students practice and improve the four macro skills), students’ motivation, self-regulation and life-long learning skills.
Tran Mai Hien is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University. She earned her Master’s degree in ESL, Bilingual and Multicultural Education from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008. Her research interests include language assessment, learner motivation and attitude, language learning strategies, and issues of multilingualism and identity. She is dedicated to promoting effective and inclusive language education through both teaching and research.
