ABSTRACT
The objectives of the research are: (1) to find out and describe about teachers’ perceptions toward authentic assessment; (2) to find out and describe the implementation of authentic assessment at SMA N 6 Surakarta; (3) to find out and describe the effects of authentic assessment to the quality of English language teaching (ELT).
The study was qualitative case study and the subjects were four English teachers in SMA N 6 Surakarta who implement authentic assessment in English language teaching. The data were collected by using passive participant observation, in-depth interview with teachers and students, and document analysis. The data were analyzed by using case study data analysis as proposed by Yin. Data analysis was done by examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing. The other way in analysing the data was pattern-matching.
The findings of the research show that the teachers almost had the same perception toward authentic assessment. Teachers’ perception towards authentic assessment is assessment which can assess the students’ knowledge (cognitive), skill (psychomotor), and attitude (affective) during the teaching and learning process. It is useful to know the students real ability and what they know and what they can do. This research also describes and explains the implementation of authentic assessment in English language teaching conducted in SMA N 6 surakarta includes types of authentic assessment, the steps of developing authentic assessment, documents used in implementing authentic assessment, teachers and students’ roles, teachers obstacles in implementing authentic assessment. This research reveals that authentic assessment affects to the quality of English language teaching. It can improve students’ motivation, interest, enthusiasm, active, self confidence, creativity in learning English. It also improves students’ English ability, and learning result.
The research suggests that the implementation of authentic assessments strongly influences and improves to the students’ motivation, interest, enthusiasm, activeness, self confidence, creativity, and learning result. For that reason, teachers need to implement authentic assessment in English language teaching by choosing the appropriate types of authentic assessment for their students.
Key words: authentic assessment, English language teaching