Application of Formative Assessment in College English Teaching

A comprehensive, objective, scientific and accurate evaluation system is a key component in College English teaching. On the one hand, it helps the students to obtain feedback to adjust their learning strategies in order to improve their learning efficiency. On the other hand, it provides the teacher with information to better achieve the teaching goal and ensure the teaching quality. The formative assessment is in nature a procedural evaluation that aims to cover the whole growth and progress of a student in learning a specific course, to provide an accurate judgment on whether and to what extent the students have achieved their learning objectives from various aspects. It facilitates the effective monitoring of students’ autonomous learning, and is particularly important in the college English teaching. This article makes an analysis on the characteristics of formative assessment, points out the principles in implementing formative evaluation and discusses the specific approaches to applying formative assessment in the college English teaching.