The Impact of Teaching Knowledge Assessment Tools on the Writing Skill of Iranian EFL Teachers

ABSTRACT: The present study was carried out to investigate the washback effects of teaching knowledge tests, i.e. TKT, DELTA, and alternative assessment on the writing of Iranian EFL teachers. To fulfil the requirements of the study, the researcher selected the research participants at random from language teachers at Simin Language Institute, and then divided them into three groups in a random fashion. The researcher adopted a pretest-posttest comparison group design to investigate the washback effect of each teaching assessment tool and compared the three groups with respect to the writing skill. To test the null hypotheses in the study, the researcher ran parametric statistical tests, including one-way ANOVA, paired-samples t-tests. Having analyzed the statistical data, the researcher discovered that the writing skill was affected only by DELTA and alternative assessment.