Research Information System
EDUCCON (Education Conference), Ankara, Turkey, 27 - 28 September 2018
Technology does not only change the materials that people
use, it also changes and effects many fields including language education. Contemporary
trend is “Education 4.0”. It is obvious that this new notion will change classic
language assessment practices and bring flexible student-centered applications.
As speaking is the most problematic skill to be tested because of some reasons
like time limitation and high student numbers in the classrooms, the first aim
of this study is to ascertain if technology is used to assess students’
speaking skills. The second goal of the study is, starting from the first point,
to find out if teachers need being informed about current and possible future
technological improvements. In this regard, a survey is conducted with 511 in-service
English teachers. Results show that most of the in-service teachers in Turkey neither
grade nor prefer using technology in testing speaking skills. Nearly, forty six
percent of the participants put forward some reasons like time limitation, lack
of knowhow, or insignificance of technology use to defend themselves. It is
obvious that a great deal of effort is needed to inform teachers about 4.0
technology and motivate them to use it in their assessment practices. It is
believed that up to date technology courses at faculty education and in-service
teacher training activities will be helpful to guide language educators.