Formative Assessment of EFL students' Speaking Skills in an upper-secondary vocational classroom

The thesis Formative Assessment of EFL students' Speaking Skills in an upper-secondary vocational classroom describes attitudes to assessment of three English language teachers at a Czech business academy from the perspective of formative assessment just before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The case study aims to show what happens behind the classroom door by providing a deep insight into the assessment practices of EFL learning at a Czech secondary vocational school. The theoretical part defines formative assessment as feedback which brings the learner valuable information concerning the knowledge and skills in the process of learning when it is still possible to work on improving the output; it explores different formative strategies in the context of communicative approach to EFL learning, namely Speaking Skills development. The empirical part builds on the qualitative data collection which consisted of several phases and methods: firstly, school documents were analysed to understand the assessment processes in general, followed by the semi-structured individual interviews with a headmistress and three EFL teachers. Student focus groups and three individual interviews with students were carried out to clarify students' approach to their assessment. Most importantly, classroom practices of..