Book Review: Assessment for Learning in Primary Language Learning and Teaching

Compared to the research and practice of formative assessment (FA) in language education, those of assessment for learning (AfL) in primary language classrooms have been less investigated. The book Assessment for Learning in Primary Language Learning and Teaching by Maria Britton is aimed to fill such a gap.

Consisting of 12 chapters, the book can be classified into three parts (Part 1: Chapters 1–5; Part 2: Chapters 6–9; Part 3: Chapters 10–12) in which the theoretical issues, practical implementation and impact of AfL in primary language contexts are elaborated respectively. By introducing and reviewing important concepts related to AfL and its theoretical framework, Chapters 1 and 2 help readers establish what AfL is. To get a thorough understanding of how AfL has been used so far, the author conducts a literature review in Chapter 3, finding that there is a very limited number of studies examining the use of AfL in primary language contexts. With this research gap in mind, Chapters 4 and 5 adopt a cognitive constructivist perspective and a sociocultural perspective respectively to delve into the specific characteristics of primary school children, laying a solid foundation for the remaining chapters. Shifting from theory to practice, Chapters 6 and 7 present a series of AfL techniques used to set expectations, monitor progress and evaluate achievement. Taking a step further, Chapter 8 shows the differences in AfL use across language skills (productive or receptive) and age groups (7–9-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds), while Chapter 9 investigates the between-teacher variance in the frequency and diversity of AfL use. As for the concluding part, Chapter 10 discusses how AfL can impact classroom interaction and then benefit primary language teaching, while Chapter 11 demonstrates how AfL can be used to create the assessment spiral and thus aid learning. The last chapter summarizes the main points of the previous chapters, followed by some reflections as well as future directions.

Throughout this book, two features, as its name suggests, have been highlighted. One is the ‘for-learning’ purpose, which breaks the boundary between assessment and teaching as well as learning. AfL, apart from its measurement function, is more concerned with a kind of teaching philosophy embedded in the modern language classroom. The other is the ‘primary language teaching’ context, which brings children's distinctive features, either cognitive or affective, to the fore. Despite its context-specific peculiarity, this book is beneficial to improve common readers’ language assessment literacy in that both basic language assessment knowledge and practical skills are involved. For example, it points out the mistakes of regarding ongoing summative assessment as FA and it also differentiates such concepts as ‘AfL’ and ‘FA’, which, I would say, have confused a majority of language teachers. As for the practical part, it is no exaggeration to say that the demonstration of the use of AfL techniques in Chapters 6 and 7 could not be more detailed. Just as the author stated:

Such a detailed account of the implementation of AfL gained through observations of 28 primary language lessons, taught over 5 months by eight experienced teachers, and an analysis of school records from 448 lessons was not available in the published research at the time of writing this book. (p. 76)

By showing authentic examples observed during classes, this book makes it much easier for readers to draw on hands-on experience and apply AfL techniques to their own classes. However, it is also worth noting that further explorations concerning the effects of those techniques on improving students’ learning performance can be carried out, which is not covered in this book. Since the target group of AfL is learners, it is also of necessity to investigate such issues as how they perceive and respond to AfL or to what degree their learning achievements are attributed to it, to name but a few. Regretfully, this book has only included data from the teachers through questionnaires and interviews while failing to involve those from students. Another thing worth noting is that this book, through no fault of its own, is better understood for those who have some basic knowledge of second language acquisition theories, such as social-cultural theories. This is understandable, as the knowledge of how young learners learn language is fundamental for those involved in the language assessment of young learners (McKay, 2006: 47).

As has been reviewed earlier, AfL research in primary language contexts is still in its infancy, which means that there remain many issues and challenges waiting to be tackled. For example, how to negotiate AfL approaches with different primary language contexts where education policy and culture vary, how to make adaptations to established language standards to track small steps of progress in children's learning processes and, also, how to implement the assessment spiral in real classroom practice to suit the needs of groups and individuals. Such questions, together with others identified in the last chapter, need to be solved at present, and more problems that may arise along with the progress of teaching and testing theories in the future. Considering this, it is expected that more follow-up studies are to be conducted to move this research field forward, thus facilitating students’ learning to a much larger extent.

Overall, it is safe to say that this book has provided illuminating insights for both AfL research and practice in primary language contexts. I would like to strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in primary language teaching and assessment.