Incorporating Purposeful Assessment Scenarios in L2 Listening Class: A LearnerOriented Approach

This study investigated the effect of purposeful assessment scenarios, Assessment for Learning (AFL), Assessment as Learning (AAL), and integrated purposeful assessment scenarios on Iranian EFL learners’ development of listening comprehension. To this end, 100 learners organized in three experimental and one control group participated in this quasi-experimental study. They received listening instructions of the mentioned purposeful assessment forms. Parametric statistical analysis in the form of some one-way ANOVAs revealed that EFL learners exposed to integrated assessment could significantly develop their listening comprehension better than the AFL- and AAL-oriented instruction groups. However, no significant difference between AAL- and AFL-oriented groups’ listening comprehension was obtained. Though the findings are not in favor of any of the individual scenarios, they lend support to their feasibility in classroom performance assessment and assert the usefulness and viability of the synthetic approach to assessment through which measurement and instruction are bifurcated.