The Effect of Formative Assessment on the ESP Students’ Achievement

The aim of this study is to investigate experimentally the effect of formative assessment on the achievement of ESP students. To achieve the aim of the study, two groups from the Department of Arabic at the College of Education/ University of Mosul were selected randomly. The two groups; the experimental and the control, were pre-tested to equate them and exclude any intervening variables. The experimental group was evaluated by applying the formative assessment (a test after finishing each unit); whereas the control group was evaluated by applying the summative assessment. The results revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the two groups in the post-test in favour of the experimental group. The formative assessment enhanced the ESP students achievement and proved to be more useful to them. The research ended up with a number of recommendations based on the findings obtained.