An Analysis of Assessment Tasks Used in the Primary School English Textbooks and Teachers' Guides

This study aims to analyze 5th and 6th grade English textbooks and teachers' guides which are now in use in South Korean primary schools. This study also sets out to gain the teachers' perceptions on the testing materials presented in the textbooks and the teachers' guides. In order to conduct the study, through the literature review, analysis criteria of test items were constructed with two angles: test item types and thinking process types. To investigate teachers' perceptions, a questionnaire consisting of a number of open-ended questions and some close-ended ones was administered to over 84 teachers from different cities. The results of the study are as follows: First, almost all the textbooks consist of two parts of testing materials; formative test papers are usually provided in the last part of each unit and summative tests are presented in the annexed papers. Second, from the angle of test item types, multiple-choice questions, true-false questions, matching items, and sequencing items are generally used in order to assess the comprehension skills of English language. Performance oriented test items usually integrated more than two skills of English. Third, from the viewpoint of the thinking process used by learners when they address the test items, the test items usually lead the learners to recall items of language from short term memory, and to check simple facts and comprehension. Fourth, the test items asking the learners to choose the correct answer among the given options are more frequently used in the teachers' guides. Fifth, the participating teachers are generally satisfied with the test items presented in the textbooks and the teachers' guides, but they also put forward a number of opinions relevant to the issue of improving current test items.