This study investigates key cultural differences in teaching between Korean and "western" teachers, and analyses these via questionnaires given to 35 Korean teachers and 36 non-Korean teachers followed by selected interviews. A significant finding was the emphasis Korean teachers place on testing compared to the "Western"…

Assessing learners' oral skills are considered as a crucial process in most EFL teaching and learning programs. However, it can be challenging for teachers to make a valid, reliable, and fair assessment. This study aimed to investigate Saudi college students' and teachers' point of views toward the effectiveness of oral assessment techniques used…

Through Many-Facet Rasch analysis, this study explores the rating differences between 1 computer automatic rater and 5 expert teacher raters on scoring 119 students in a computerized English listening-speaking test. Results indicate that both automatic and the teacher raters demonstrate good inter-rater reliability, though the automatic rater…

In recent decades, with the rapid economic development of China, there has been a large influx of Chinese students into Western countries to pursue their studies. Empirical research reveal that some students encounter linguistic and academic challenges, and find it difficult to adapt to the Western learning environment. Adopting a qualitative…

This study was carried out to explore the assessment practice in Saudi universities with the major focus on Continuous Assessment Strategies. The study specifically aimed to find out the different assessment strategies and their contribution to students' learning and performance. It was conducted in Jubail University College and Al Mustaqbal…

Regarding the fundamental role of speaking in language skills, this study intended to investigate the effects of speaking portfolio as an alternative form of assessment for assessing Iranian EFL learners' speaking ability at the intermediate and advanced proficiency levels and also its impact on their attitudes. Accordingly, from the population of…

This small-scale mixed method research focuses on investigating the way Preparatory Year English Program (PYEP) female students in a Saudi tertiary level institution context are assessed and how they are advanced from level three (Pre-intermediate) and level four (Intermediate). A four-point agreement scale survey was conducted with fifteen…

This study investigated the effectiveness of portfolio-based writing assessment in EFL situations. Participants were 40 pre-intermediate young Iranian English learners. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups of 20 each. The experimental group wrote on five pre-established topics from their coursebook. Their writings were…

This paper describes the results of an investigation into the use of portfolio assessment (PA) in Chinese context, beginning with a survey of the rationale for the use of portfolios with students. Then the empirical study is presented and the teachers' and the students' as well as the English teaching advisors' voices are revealed through excerpts…