Teaching for Assessment in EFL Contexts: Modeling Aptitude, Awareness, Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Teacher Engagement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1602.26Keywords:
Teaching for Assessment (TFA), teacher self-efficacy, language aptitude, metalinguistic awareness, language anxietyAbstract
In assessment-driven educational systems, particularly within Saudi EFL contexts, instructors face increasing pressure to align their teaching with high-stakes testing frameworks. While individual teacher attributes such as language aptitude, metalinguistic awareness, self-efficacy, and anxiety have been studied in isolation, their interactive effects on Teaching for Assessment (TFA) practices remain underexplored. This study aimed to investigate how these cognitive and affective factors predict and mediate TFA engagement among university EFL instructors in Saudi Arabia. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed using five validated instruments to measure language aptitude, metalinguistic awareness, language anxiety, teacher self-efficacy, and TFA practices. A purposive sample of 247 Saudi university EFL instructors participated. Hierarchical regression, mediation (PROCESS Model 4), and moderated mediation (Models 14 and 58) analyses were conducted using SPSS and Hayes' PROCESS Macro. Self-efficacy was the strongest positive predictor of TFA practices, followed by metalinguistic awareness. Language anxiety negatively influenced TFA, while language aptitude showed only an indirect effect via metalinguistic awareness. Moderation analysis revealed that anxiety weakened the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and TFA, while self-efficacy enhanced the entire indirect pathway from aptitude to TFA. These findings validate a moderated mediation model and highlight complex cognitive-affective dynamics influencing assessment behavior. The study confirms that cognitive ability alone is insufficient to foster assessment-aligned teaching. Rather, the interplay of self-efficacy, metalinguistic awareness, and anxiety significantly shapes TFA practices. These insights underscore the need for professional development programs that enhance both cognitive skills and emotional readiness among EFL instructors.
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