A Bibliometric Analysis on “E-Assessment in Teaching English as a Foreign Language” Publications in Web of Science (WoS)

Introduction

In recent years, with the drastic changes in education during COVID-19, e-assessment, which was once regarded as machine-directed, far from humanistic elements and an understanding with full of contradictions, has recently been considered a practical and effective assessment tool for educators. In the past, it was thought that machines, mostly computers in assessment in foreign language teaching, were far from the concepts of designing education, including emotions, feelings, or anxiety. However, during the last two decades, the terms, machines, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithms have become an indispensable part of our modern lives, and we are constantly in a relationship with them, so they replaced and evaluated in every field with the latest and provoking advances in technology. As people constantly rely more and more on machines which were once thought as cold and far from empathy devices, they began to notice the advantages of these machines bring and benefit from them. This was the case during the COVID-19 period, and, perhaps, for the first time, with the advent of this outbreak, educators, teachers, and researchers end this dispute with machines and technology, as it was the only way to teach, to reach and to assess learners during pandemic days.

This period had a pleasant coincidence with the interest of researchers in second/foreign language assessment. During this period, there had been no consensus on the “effective” assessment in EFL/ESL classrooms, although hundreds of research have been conducted on assessment. In these studies, researchers have tried to describe and investigate “the process of collecting information about a student to aid in decision-making about the progress and language development of the student.” (Cheng et al., 2004). In line with these studies in EFL assessment, various factors in the language learning process like teachers’ instruction type, and students’ learning experiences that can be influenced by the assessment practices were investigated (Coombs et al., 2018). In this cycle, it is a general fact that education is greatly influenced by assessment, but assessment practices are also influenced by a variety of factors that can occasionally conflict with one another (Ridgway et al., 2004). Likewise, teachers’ approaches to assessment, classroom experiences, and pre-service education of teachers were found to be very influential on the assessment practices (Coombs et al., 2018). In addition to these factors, technology and education have become a pivotal role in the last two decades and appeared another factor.

However, although assessment in a foreign language teaching, assessment has significant importance due to its strong influence on various processes including teaching, learning, and decision-making (Coombs et al., 2018), in literature and, in research studies and theoretical articles written about both mainstream education and TESOL/TEFL literature, assessment is a widely discussed topic for its major role in learning and teaching that cannot be overlooked (Troudi et al., 2009). The continuously growing literature on language assessment has been helping language testers to look critically at their practices and build a better understanding of language education and assessment, therefore the area of language assessment is constantly challenged in fundamental aspects (McNamara, 2001).

While the role of useful and effective assessment in EFL context is highly crucial, technological tools that include “e-assessment” came to the fore. The recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) made the adaptation of technology in educational settings more widespread, not only in the learning process but also in the assessment as well. The use of ICT in assessment is often referred to as “e-assessment”. According to Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (2007), e-assessment can be defined as “the end-to-end electronic assessment processes where ICT is used for the presentation of assessment activity, and the recording of responses.” These processes involve learners, teachers, institutions, and the general public as well. Crisp (2011) defines e-assessment as “the process of constructing, delivering, storing, or reporting student assessment tasks, responses, grades, or feedback with the use of digital technologies” (p.5). Definitions of e-assessment place a strong emphasis on the value of technology in the implementation of assessment. Thus, it can be easily understood that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are essential for e-assessment.