The relevance of the study relates to the implementation of the nationwide school reform, the purpose of which is to ensure innovative school education for the development of competencies that would be used in further education and career. The need to develop and implement new strategies for the enhancement of written communication skills in L2 teaching is caused by the expansion of cross-border contacts and inter-cultural communication which is carried out in the genres of English written discourse. As a result, the European integration vector of Ukraine has intensified the involvement of school students in various educational programs, projects, and platforms (e.g. FLEX, EURIADE, Erasmus +, eTwinning), which requires the appropriate English language and communication skills.
The research relies on the idea that building of English writing skills at secondary schools should be implemented the context of enhancement of general skills of the 21st century. It is these skills that enable students to apply critical thinking to comprehension of the learning material and tasks as well as to evaluation of own cognitive efforts and results. Therefore, the purpose of implementing the formative assessment and evaluation strategy in the communicative teaching of English writing is to develop student autonomy and support positive motivation in order to enhance English writing skills at secondary school. In addition, the joint cooperative activities of teachers and students in building communicative writing skills during assessment and evaluation contributes to the development of personality traits such as independence, personal responsibility, self-organization, readiness for communication.
The object of the study is the process of teaching English writing to 5-9-grade students at secondary school of Ukraine. The subject of the study is the formative assessment and evaluation strategy in teaching and learning English and its impact on communicative competence and learning autonomy.
Based on the indicated object and subject of the thesis, the purpose of the research is theoretical substantiation, practical development and experimental verification of the assessment and evaluation strategy in building of communicative skills of English writing at secondary school. Scientific novelty of the research rests on the analysis of assessment and evaluation concepts in communicative ESL teaching, correlation of Ukrainian and English terms, substantiation of communicative skills in English writing as well as building the formative assessment and evaluation strategy in ESL teaching at secondary school based on the results of experimental testing of the research hypothesis.
The analysis of research in assessment and evaluation in Ukrainian and international Language Pedagogy has led to the conclusion that the most appropriate way to build the formative assessment and evaluation strategy in the communicative classroom environment is from the standpoint of communicative and competence approaches. With the assessment strategy viewed as a component of communicative learning, the communicative potential of different types of assessment is identified and analysed depending on whether they relate to learning outcomes (assessment of learning) or are part of the communication process in communicative learning (assessment as learning and for learning).
The research findings have led to the assumption that assessment and evaluation are most consistent with the communicative learning if they are carried out in the context of formative but not summative assessment. Therefore, the learning strategy as communication is designed for the formative assessment of the English written competence at secondary school. In addition, the communicative skills of the English writing are defined as the ability to apply communicative skills to solve communication problems in the communicative situations of written genres of discourse. Formative assessment and evaluation as a strategy is implemented for the purpose of learning (assessment for/as learning) in the cooperative activities of teacher and student and is organized based on psychological characteristics of positive motivation of students and the principles of cooperative communicative learning as well as the priority of student autonomy.
The study considers the motives that influence the development of English writing skills, identifies the techniques of positive motivation in mastering English writing, and reveals the leading role of cognitive, causal and success motives. The formative assessment and evaluation strategy of ESL writing in the context of communicative learning is viewed in this study as a series of communicative stages in learning English as well as a set of teaching tactics, operations and procedures aimed at building students' English writing skills.
