The impact of the use of formative assessment on EFL students' writing anxiety: An action research study

The importance of formative assessment method is ever so increasing day by day. This method of evaluation has been an effective data collection source for teachers and enhancing the efficiency of students' education. The fact that formative assessment can be used in all phases of the lesson contributes dearly to the students to receive the contents of the class in a more productive and functional manner. Within the scope of the obtained data from formative assessment, feedback is provided, course arrangement is made and more effective learning products are reached. Students would have the chance to be a proactive part of the learning process and come out to be a more responsible person thus having the chance to make up for the deficit in their education. Writing in a foreign language is one of the major topics that students are having problems with. For this reason, the present study aims to expose to what extend the anxiety of writing skill of the learners of English as a foreign language change with the formative assessment method. This study which was conducted with 30 students includes an action research study for sophomores. In the course of data collection and evaluation process survey, interview, stars and field notes have been used. In the light of the findings obtained from the study, it was found that the use of formative assessment significantly reduced the writing anxiety of the students who learn English as a foreign language.