JELT_V2_N4_RP4 Shaheena Sulaiman Lalani Sherwin Rodrigues Journal on English Language Teaching 2249 – 0752 2 4 23 33 Reading Skills, Young Language Learners, Classroom-based Assessment, English As A Foreign Language, Teachers' Beliefs And Practices This collaborative action research aimed to explore some classroom-based assessment strategies to assess the reading skills of young children. This article presents the findings of the pre-intervention stage as part of an action research study where a teacher's perception and practice of assessing the reading skills of young learners were explored. The research participants included one early years' English Language teacher along with four students of grade II as a focused group. Data were generated through observations, semi-structured interviews, document review and a reflective diary maintained by the researcher. The findings revealed that a teacher's belief and perception influenced her choice of assessment strategies and also her practice of reading assessment in the classroom. The teacher believed that assessment led to perfection in the reading skills of young learners. For her, assessment was undertaken to polish the weak areas of children's reading. Once the weak area was identified, children needed rigorous practice of the specific area until they gained mastery in it. Moreover, it was found that the teacher applied multiple assessment strategies to assess the reading skills of her children but she had her own perceptions and purposes for choosing a particular assessment strategy which may or may not be supported by the research and literature on reading and assessment of young learners. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for teachers, teacher educators and early childhood practitioners. October - December 2012 Copyright © 2012 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/ArticleHTML.aspx?articleID=2068