Language Assessment Literacy in Vietnam: Practices, Attitudes and Challenges

This paper explores the construct of Language Assessment Literacy in Vietnam. A mixed methods approach was adopted to understand the classroom-based assessment practices of English language teachers at all stages of education. Classroom observations with follow up interview, focus group discussions and a survey were the methods deployed to understand the teachers’ assessment practices, their attitudes towards assessment and the challenges they encountered when assessing their students. The results revealed that the teachers used a range of assessment practices, and they were able to clearly articulate the rationale for the chosen practices. The teachers used the results of the assessments to inform their teaching decisions and lesson planning. Based on the range of assessment practices observed and discussed the participant teachers demonstrated high levels of Language Assessment Literacy. They were able to implement competence-based assessment which was a feature of a recent nationwide curriculum reform project. The challenges faced by the teachers included large class sizes, heavy teaching load and, for teachers in rural areas, resourcing issues. The teachers expressed a strong desire to have more autonomy in their teaching and assessment practices and for the teacher voice to be given greater weight when considering and implementing curriculum reform.