Impact of Language Assessment Literacy Enhancement on Iranian EFL Teachers’ Assessment of Learning and Attitude: A Comparative Study of Novice and Experienced Teachers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, Isf. C, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English, Isf. C, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of English, Isf. C, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

This study sought to explore the effect of language assessment literacy enhancement on novice and experienced Iranian English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teachers’ assessment of learning performance and their attitude towards it. To achieve this aim, 80 Iranian EFL teachers with varying teaching experience were selected using convenience sampling and categorized into a novice (n = 40) and an experienced (n = 40) group. After completing a researcher-made Assessment of Learning (AoL) knowledge pre-test, the participants received a Language Assessment Literacy Enhancement (LALE) treatment across 13 instructional sessions, which was followed by an AoL post-test. A semi-structured interview was also administered to 10 of them to examine their attitudes. The results of the independent samples t-test showed that experienced teachers outperformed novice teachers in assessment of learning, a finding that can be interpreted within the context of the present study, in light of their greater prior familiarity with summative assessment practices, as well as the formative-oriented focus of the language assessment literacy intervention based on Popham’s (2009) framework, in which summative assessment was not emphasized to the same extent. The results also indicated that the participants acknowledged the advantages that recent research has demonstrated for formative assessment, such as motivating learners and making assessments more objective. However, they maintained that, due to teachers’ insufficient language assessment knowledge, limited time, and the dominance of summative assessment in Iran’s education system, summative assessment remains the practical, accepted, expected, and preferred form of assessment in Iran. The results carry implications for policymakers, teachers, educators, and coursebook developers, among others.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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  • Receive Date: 04 October 2025
  • Revise Date: 02 February 2026
  • Accept Date: 03 February 2026
  • First Publish Date: 24 February 2026
  • Publish Date: 24 February 2026

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