A sociocultural analysis of teacher language assessment literacy (LAL) development: stories from a novice Vietnamese EFL teacher

Guided by sociocultural theory, this single-case narrative inquiry views language assessment literacy development as a process of language assessment concept formation and examines how a teacher’s language assessment concepts were formed, what sociocultural elements mediated those concept formations, and how the focal teacher emotionally experienced those concept formations. To fulfill these aims, approximately 15 hours of audio and video data were collected from a novice Vietnamese teacher of English as a foreign language via interviews, classroom observations, and verbal reports. The data were transformed into narrative vignettes which were then subject to directed content analysis guided by sociocultural theory’s notions of concept and perezhivanie. The study found that teacher assessment concept formation was a long, complex, and ongoing process involving various sociocultural mediators. Notably, the mediation of sociocultural factors was not direct but refracted through the participant’s evolving perezhivanie. Furthermore, empirical concepts derived from the focal teacher’s practical assessment experiences played a more significant role than scientific concepts originating from formal instruction and academic literature. Finally, the study has demonstrated the role of emotions in mediating assessment concept formations. Drawing on these findings, the study argues that language teacher education programs need to integrate best language assessment practices, leverage student teachers’ empirical experiences, and utilize teacher educators’ responsive mediation to support teacher language assessment literacy development.