Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the employment of effective evaluation and assessment techniques to meet the demands of 21st century foreign language instructional practices. A further shift has also taken place to initiate innovative and alternative assessment procedures in the continually changing and highly demanding foreign language teaching contexts. In a sense, this review study mainly focuses its discussion on evaluation process in English language teaching program. At first, some common terminology identified in the recent language evaluation literature are clarified elaborately. Next, an overview of the paradigm shift from traditional assessment to alternative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) context is elucidated. In particular, English language program followed in primary and secondary education in Turkey was another major issue to be held in research paper. Therefore, testing techniques for the assessment of language skills are discussed extensively in line with the requirements of English language program. Finally, necessary suggestions were advanced as to the ways to make English language teachers use the alternatives in language assessment.

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