Assessment task formats in teaching Turkish as a foreign language: A study on their appearance in textbooks, perceptions of instructors and students' regarding their instructiveness and their effect on the teaching and learning process

The aim of this study is to examine the frequency of assessment task formats in A1-C1 level text books in teaching Turkish as a foreign language, the extend to which instructors and students find the assessment task formats used in the textbooks and in the learning process instructive, and the perceptions of instructors and students regarding the effect of assessment and evaluation activities on teaching and learning process. As data collection tools, "traditional assessment task format identification forms" specific to language skill areas were used to identify the task formats in the text books, a 5-point Likert questionnaire consisting of 44 items was used to determine the extend to which instructors and students found the assessment task formats instructive and a 5-point Likert questionnaire consisting of 6 items was used to determine the perceptions of instructors and students about the effect of assessment activities. The z-test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the ratios of the assessment task formats in the fifteen books. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the distribution of assessment task formats in the fifteen books in A1-C1 level varied according to the skill area and level. It was observed that the most common assessment formats in the textbooks were fill-in-the blank, matching, dichotomous items, question and answer, dialogue, writing a paragraph/essay. On the other hand, it was found that the textbooks did not include aural cloze test, C-test, dictation, creating visuals, cloze test, decision making, dicto-gloss, dicto-comp, writing a petition, writing a letter, and translation assessment task formats. It was observed that instructors and students found the task format of dialogue very instructive, while they found aural cloze test, c-test, cloze elide and control checklists moderately instructive. It was observed that instructors and students perceive that exams influence the content and methods of teaching and learning as well as how students learn, what they learn, the rate, order, degree and depth of their learning. It was observed that instructors mostly agreed that exams affect attitudes towards the content, method etc. of teaching and learning, while students agreed that exams affect how they learn. Keywords: Foreign language education, assessment and evaluation, traditional assessment formats, alternative assessment task formats, washback effect.