Impact of Teachers' Beliefs on Oral Exam Assessment in English Education. A Qualitative Analysis

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• 1. INTRODUCTION
  • 1.1 RESEARCH MOTIVATION
  • 1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
• 2. ORAL EXAMINATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
  • 2.1 OBJECTIVE AND FUNCTION
  • 2.2 DESIGN AND ORGANISATION
  • 2.3 CHARACTERISTICS
  • 2.4 ASSESSMENT
    • 2.4.1 Common Reference Levels
    • 2.4.2 Assessment sheet
    • 2.4.3 Quality Criteria
• 3. TEACHERS' BELIEFS
  • 3.1 DEFINITION
  • 3.2 CATEGORIES OF TEACHERS' BELIEFS
    • 3.2.1 Assessment Justification
    • 3.2.2 Assessment Attitudes
    • 3.2.3 Assessment Experience
    • 3.2.4 Assessment Expectations
    • 3.2.5 Assessment Purpose
  • 3.3 RESEARCH REPORT
• 4. METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
  • 4.1 QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS
  • 4.2 INTROSPECTION AS A METHOD FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
    • 4.2.1 Think Aloud
    • 4.2.2 Methodological Implications
• 5. THE STUDY
  • 5.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
  • 5.2 TEST SUBJECTS
    • 5.2.1 Selection of the Sample
    • 5.2.2 Pre-Study Questionnaire
    • 5.2.3 Findings
  • 5.3 MAIN STUDY
    • 5.3.1 Procedural Steps
    • 5.3.2 Tasks and Materials
    • 5.3.3 Quality Criteria
• 6. ANALYSIS
  • 6.1 DATA PREPARATION
    • 6.1.1 Data Focus
    • 6.1.2 The Transcription System
    • 6.1.3 The Segmentation System
    • 6.2.4 The Coding System
  • 6.2 FINDINGS
    • 6.2.1 Content Structuring
    • 6.2.2 Type-Building
• 7. DISCUSSION
  • 7.1 CORE TEACHER'S BELIEFS
    • 7.1.1 Assessment Justification
    • 7.1.2 Assessment Attitudes
    • 7.1.3 Assessment Experience
    • 7.1.4 Assessment Expectations
    • 7.1.5 Assessment Purpose
  • 7.2 CRITICAL ASSESSMENT SITUATIONS
  • 7.3 ASSESSMENT TYPOLOGY

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This master's thesis investigates the beliefs held by English language teachers during the assessment of oral examinations in the foreign language classroom in North-Rhine Westphalia. The research aims to descriptively examine the categories of beliefs expressed, their timing and purpose, and to explore potential examiner types based on the observed characteristics of expressed beliefs. This study contributes to bridging a research gap in the field of oral examination assessment by delving into the previously disregarded role of teachers' beliefs.

• Examiner beliefs and their influence on oral examination assessment.
• The impact of teachers' beliefs on the design and implementation of oral examinations.
• Identifying different categories of teachers' beliefs related to assessment.
• Developing a typology of examiner types based on expressed beliefs.
• Understanding the role of teachers' beliefs in the development of assessment practices.

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• Chapter 1: Introduces the research topic and provides motivation for the study, highlighting the limited research on examiner beliefs in oral examinations. It also outlines the structure of the thesis.
• Chapter 2: Discusses the nature and function of oral examinations in the foreign language classroom, including their objective, design, characteristics, and assessment procedures.
• Chapter 3: Defines teachers' beliefs and explores different categories related to assessment, such as justification, attitudes, experience, expectations, and purpose. It also presents an overview of the research report.
• Chapter 4: Explains the methodological foundations of the study, focusing on qualitative content analysis and introspection as a research method, particularly the Think Aloud technique.
• Chapter 5: Details the study's design, including the research questions, selection of test subjects, pre-study questionnaire, and the main study's procedures, tasks, and materials.
• Chapter 6: Discusses the data analysis process, including data preparation, transcription, segmentation, coding, and the findings related to content structuring and type-building.
• Chapter 7: Explores the core teachers' beliefs in greater detail, analyzing their justification, attitudes, experience, expectations, and purpose. It also examines critical assessment situations and proposes an assessment typology.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This thesis focuses on the assessment of oral examinations in the foreign language classroom, exploring the role of teachers' beliefs in this process. The research utilizes qualitative content analysis and introspection, specifically the Think Aloud technique, to understand the diverse categories of beliefs expressed by examiners during the assessment. The study aims to identify different examiner types and contribute to the development of assessment practices based on the findings. Key terms include: oral examination assessment, teachers' beliefs, qualitative research, introspection, Think Aloud, assessment typology, examiner types.