Not much research has been done on reading assessment knowledge, conceptions, and practice of Iranian EFL teachers. This study, therefore, aimed at examining Iranian EFL teachers’ assessment literacy for reading based on Xu and Brown's (2016) Teacher Assessment Literacy in Practice (TALiP) framework. To this end, a questionnaire was developed and given to 120 Iranian EFL teachers in order to explore their reading assessment literacy. This was followed by a semi-structured interview conducted with 10 participants to obtain in-depth information about their reading assessment literacy as well as to explore possible mediation of contextual and experiential factors. Descriptive statistics revealed that the majority of EFL teachers had positive conceptions of reading assessment. In terms of practice, most teachers relied on traditional assessment methods such as quizzes to assess their students. The results also indicated that there was a general lack of knowledge to assess the reading ability. The follow-up interviews revealed that two types of context, including macro and micro level contexts as well as teachers' experience mediated their assessment conception and practice. The findings of the study have implications for teacher education programs to recognize the importance of providing teachers with appropriate assessment knowledge and work on their assessment conceptions to reduce the adverse impact of apprenticeship of observation. The finding of the study also indicates that EFL teachers’ reading assessment literacy needs are far more than the content knowledge of assessment and should take into account other factors such as teacher conceptions of assessment, macro and micro contexts, and teachers’ experience.
