English language teachers' opinions on assessment of speaking and listening skills at secondary school level

This study explores in-service secondary school EFL teachers' opinions about the Turkish Ministry of National Education's (MoNE) speaking and listening skill assessment implementation in the 2023-2024 academic year. The study aims to see if teachers' opinions align with MoNE's expectations, their opinions on assessment methods and techniques, and their self-efficacy in the assessment of these skills. It also investigates if teachers encountered any challenges or needs during the assessment process and whether demographic factors such as gender, age, level of education, years of experience and academic background affect their opinions. A mixed-methods research design was employed, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection. 150 secondary school EFL teachers from Isparta, Türkiye, took part in the survey and were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-designed five-point Likert scale questionnaire via Google Forms. 17 volunteer teachers were also interviewed semi-structured to get deeper insights into their experiences and views. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS for statistical significance and qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis with MAXQDA v.24. Findings indicate that EFL teachers generally support the new policy, recognizing its importance for communicative competence. Before the change, these skills were informally assessed, and listening was often overlooked. Formal assessments were seen as a step toward more balanced assessment, but teachers noted challenges like lack of training, increased workload, crowded classes, limited hours, and grading difficulties. Concerns also included standardization, scoring reliability, and student anxiety. The study revealed mixed opinions on including speaking and listening in the LGS, with some seeing it as motivating, while others hesitated from added pressure. Many favoured assessing these skills throughout the term. Regarding demographic influences, gender was found to have significant effect on some of the questionnaire items while other demographic variables (age, years of teaching experience and educational background) showed limited statistical differences. Teachers suggest that policy changes should be aligned with classroom realities by providing sufficient teacher training, improving assessment resources and revising the curriculum, regulations in the curriculum, improving the e-school system and taking necessary steps to the mentioned challenges to support a more practical assessment process.