Language Assessment Literacy Training of Prospective Language Teachers for the Challenges in Classroom-based Language Assessment

This study explores ELT teacher candidates’ thinking on the practicum period from three interrelated standpoints: what professional content knowledge the student teachers believed they possessed at the beginning of the practicum, what they thought that they needed to learn more to develop in academic terms during the teaching practice and their evaluations of what they actually learnt at the end of the period. Fortyfour teacher candidates from the ELT Department of a Turkish university having their practicum at six different practice schools participated in the study. The participants’ reflective journals they kept for 10 weeks, the notes of five discussion and experience sharing meetings held by the course lecturer and finally group interviews with totally 27 volunteering participants constituted the data sources for the study. Results reveal that student teachers base their knowledge to the courses they took at the department and related literature on the basis of which they evaluate themselves as highly competent. However, they regard themselves inadequate in terms of pedagogical content knowledge and expect to develop in practical issues. According to the student teachers’ point of view, school mentors and university supervisors in the order of priority appear to be the responsible figures to lead them in this developmental process. In this respect, the findings exhibit discrepancies and suggest implications for the involving parties of the practicum