9. EFL school teacher’s digital assessment literacy: A re-conceptualisation in the Chinese context Hao Xu
National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education
Beijing Foreign Studies University, China
(Abstract) In this presentation, I shall report on a preliminary study that investigates EFL school teacher’s
digital assessment literacy as manifested through their use of an online assessment service,
which is designed to assist teachers in collecting and analysing data about student’s learning
progress. Guided by a framework for discerning teacher knowledge utilisable for assessment
practices, I categorise the manifestations of teacher’s digital assessment literacy into a three-tier
knowledge system, encompassing technical knowledge, practical knowledge, and conceptual
knowledge. Findings from this study also seem to indicate that technical knowledge, which can
operate independently, may not necessarily promote the development of practical and conceptual
knowledge, although the lack of technical knowledge obviously poses a hindrance.
This re-conceptualisation of teacher’s digital assessment literacy may provide an alternative to
the more prevailing view that digital assessment literacy is the enactment of assessment literacy
in digital environments. This re-conceptualisation thus calls for more attention to the
indispensability of technical knowledge beyond being epiphenomenal, which co-exists with the
digitality as a permeating culture that characterises teacher’s assessment practices.
Bio-data Dr. Hao Xu is a professor of applied linguistics at the National Research Centre for Foreign
Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. His main research interests
include second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and language teacher education. He has
published in flagship journals such as
TESOL Quarterly ,
Language Teaching Research ,
System ,
Language Policy ,
Teaching and Teacher Education , and
Journal of English for Academic Purposes . He is currently associate editor of the
International Journal of Applied Linguistics ,
and has also reviewed numerous manuscripts for international journals, as well as proposals for
American Association for Applied Linguistics annual conference. He also co-edited a special
issue entitled Feedback and Assessment in Second Language Education during the COVID-19
and Beyond with
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher , which appeared in December, 2021.
