| Description: |
Assessing students in lessons and providing quality feedback is one of the most important activities for teachers in English lessons. Properly chosen assessment methods and forms not only ensure the objectivity of assessment, but also help the student to identify what competencies and how he or she could improve. Although various methods of assessment of task performance are used in English language teaching, this study aims to investigate Lithuanian EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the use of marking rubrics when evaluating students’ performance tasks. To achieve the aim of the study, a mixed research design was conducted, which consisted of two consecutive parts. First, a quantitative stage using an online survey as a tool to capture. Second, a qualitative stage using stimulated recall and a semi-structured follow-up interview. 218 Lithuanian English teachers participated in the online survey and six in the semi-structured interview. The results of the research showed that Lithuanian English teachers use various forms of student assessment in their classrooms, including marking rubrics. Their choice is often determined by whether the rubrics are familiar to teachers, easy to adapt, or help to properly assess a particular performance. The study also revealed that teachers prefer to assign standard and exam-based tasks, which are assessed on the basis of the national exam assessment standard, and less often assignments, which teachers find more motivating for students but difficult to assess, that have no equivalent to exam tasks. One of the key findings of the study suggests that teachers’ understanding of their purpose in the classroom determines how they use marking rubrics. |