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The effects of formative evaluation on students' achievement in English for specific purposes

The research attempts to trace the impact of formative evaluation on Saudi male learners’ achievement in medical English. The study also seeks to find out instructors’ and students' views and attitudes towards formative assessment. The sample of the study involves 98 subjects chosen purposively from among the Preparatory Year learners at a Saudi university. They were divided into two equal groups; one is intended to act as an experimental and the other is taken to represent the control group. The students of the experimental group were given their English for Specific Purposes course following the formative evaluation techniques whereas the second group was taught their ESP course in accordance with the traditional assessment principles. The experimental group instructors were given intensive training courses in Saudi Arabia and abroad on how to use formative evaluation principles in the classroom. At the end of the experimental period which continued for four months, the experimental and the control group sat for the end of term examination which was designed for all candidates in the Preparatory College. Grades of all subjects in the two groups in the final exam were compared. The experimental group student’s performance was found to be significantly higher than that of the control group. Students' and instructors’ attitudes towards formative evaluation were generated through a questionnaire and a series of interviews. Advanced statistical analysis of the responses of the instructors and students has shown their positive views about this form of evaluation. The research concludes with some suggestions to enhance this type of assessment and to conduct further studies on female students learning different language skills for different purposes. Suggestions to improve formative evaluation practice were also given to make this form of assessment more motivating and more enticing. Keywords: Formative evaluation, summative assessment, feedback, scaffolding, attitudes towards learning.