Classroom Participation Scoring in Iranian Private Language Schools: Teachers' Perceptions of Holistic and Analytic Scoring

Subject Areas :

Vida Javanshire ¹ , Javad Gholami ² , Zhila Mohammadnia ³

1 - Department of English Language, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 - Department of English Language, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
3 - Department of English Language, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Received: 2021-02-16 Accepted : 2021-07-07 Published : 2021-01-01

Keywords: Classroom Participation, Objective Assessment Rubric, Private English Language Schools,

Abstract :

Many L2 teachers baffle when it comes to classroom participation scoring(CPS) of their students. Through a researcher-made questionnaire, this study explored EFL teachers' perceptions of classroom participation scoring(CPS) in Iranian private language schools. Moreover, it investigated the participants' views on a newly-developed objective and analytic rubric as part of this study for CPS. To this end, 120 EFL teachers completed the questionnaire on the typical CPS framework they used in English classrooms. Detailed analysis of teachers' perceptions of CPS indicated that most Iranian EFL teachers used holistic and subjective CPS approach and had little knowledge of the objective methods of CPS. After having been introduced to the proposed analytic CPS rubric, the participating teachers showed a positive attitude to the rubric and reported the rubric's applicability and flexibility in assessing EFL learners' classroom participation. The findings suggest adopting more objective assessment rubrics for CPS.