writing assessment literacy of iranian secondary school english teachers: a focus on conceptions, knowledge, and practices

The study of assessment literacy has been an active research agenda over the last couple of decades. yet, studies exploring english teachers' writing assessment literacy (wal) are comparatively rare; more so in the iranian context. this study investigates iranian secondary school english teachers' conceptions, knowledge, and practices in assessing writing. data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of 27 items. using google forms, the questionnaire was administered to 50 teachers accessed through social media. descriptive statistical analysis of the data showed the following. the main motivation for assessing l2 writing appeared to be learning, grading, and reporting, respectively. major language areas that could potentially be improved through assessing writing were found to be accuracy, coherence, diction, fluency, and creativity. furthermore, teachers' perceptions of assessing l2 writing were rather mixed. whereas they seemed to endorse a process approach to writing, they held a timed, exam-like perception of writing assessment. further, they were mostly in favor of a combination of grading and corrective feedback along with diagnostic information on students' writing. subjective holistic rating was also reportedly common among the respondents. regarding their knowledge, most teachers estimated their knowledge of key assessment concepts as either average or above average. likewise, the participants appeared to assess l2 writing in summative, formative, and dynamic ways. in addition, the major barriers in the way of teachers' expanding their writing assessment knowledge were reportedly lack of access to effective training courses or the theoretical and prescriptive nature of the available language testing courses. in terms of assessment practice, writing in small groups, take-home compositions, in-class writing and textbook homework were found to be among the most frequent.  these findings carry implication for l2 writing pedagogy and assessment.