Characterizing Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Questioning as Informal Formative Assessment Strategy

Challenges in providing an effective formative assessment in the EFL context has remained uncovered at higher education levels. This study aimed to investigate the informal formative assessment practices of EFL teachers at tertiary level in Indonesia. In the study, qualitative research design was adopted, and the sequence of Eliciting, Student responding, Recognizing students’ responses, and Using the information gathered (ESRU), developed by Furtak (2011), was used to illustrate every single step to diagnose students’ actual knowledge and gap found. The survey was distributed randomly to 59 EFL teachers at tertiary education institutions in Indonesia, after the analysis of their responses, five of them were selected via criterion sampling method as the participants of the study. The data were collected through video recordings, classroom observation, and interviews. The result revealed that teachers with complete ESRU sequences tend to use questioning technique more effectively as an informal formative assessment. The more complete ESRU sequences they practiced, the more information they collected to provide appropriate feedback to students. Besides, teachers’ strategy in making use of information gathered was worth noting to enhance students’ learning. Hence this study can contribute as a continuum base of formal formative assessment to construct better learning instruction as well as consideration for decision and policy making in EFL higher education context.

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