Language Assessment Knowledge and Practice among Libyan School English Teachers: A Critical Review of the Literature

Abstract

Teachers' knowledge of language assessment is widely regarded as a determinant of the quality of classroom testing, feedback, and, ultimately, learning outcomes. Yet the great majority of research on language assessment literacy (LAL) has been conducted in higher-education or Western contexts, leaving the assessment knowledge and practice of school-level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in fragile and transitional education systems comparatively under-examined. This paper critically reviews the body of research, published between 2010 and 2026, that addresses the language assessment knowledge, beliefs, and practices of Libyan school English teachers. Seventeen primary are synthesised thematically around five recurring concerns: teachers' knowledge and practice of oral/speaking assessment; the relationship between assessment beliefs and classroom practice; the washback of high-stakes public examinations on teaching; the quality and curriculum-alignment of centrally set tests; and the uptake of alternative and dynamic assessment. The review argues that the Libyan literature converges on a picture of persistent negative washback and a curriculum–examination misalignment inherited from the 2000 curriculum reform, but diverges sharply on whether the underlying cause is best explained by individual teachers' limited assessment literacy or by structural features of what one commentator has termed Libya's "testing-laden culture." The review closes by identifying methodological weaknesses in the existing evidence base — heavy reliance on small, single-region qualitative samples and self-report instruments, and proposes a research agenda centred on validated LAL measurement, classroom-observation triangulation, and intervention studies at the national school level.