Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) have recently received a surge of interest in the field of second language assessment due to their promise for providing fine-grained information about strengths and weaknesses of test takers. For the same reason, the present study used the additive CDM (ACDM) as a compensatory and additive model to diagnose…

Background: In our research project, we have developed a scoring rubric for a second language (L2) summary writing for English as a foreign language (EFL) students in Japanese universities. This study aimed to examine the applicability of our five-dimensional rubric, which features both analytic and holistic assessments, to classrooms in the EFL…

Background: While numerous articles on Criterion® have been published and its validity evidence has accumulated, test users need to obtain relevant validity evidence for their local context and develop their own validity argument. This paper aims to provide validity evidence for the interpretation and use of Criterion® for assessing second…

Despite the many pedagogical benefits of self-/peer-assessment, they are not often practiced in the classroom, due to the fact that most teachers doubt learners' ability to do self-/peer-assessment accurately. Although several factors have been identified to affect self-/peer-assessment accuracy, the literature shows the rating accuracy of…

Assessing students' written output has always been a daunting task for Language teachers in the higher education. They do not only need to provide feedback on grammar and mechanics but also on content. Similarly, discipline-based or non-Language teachers face a host of challenges but are generally more disposed to providing feedbacks which are…

This study reports a research project which compared teacher and peer assessment of English university students' compositions. In addition, it investigated possible friendship bias in peer assessment as well as the impacts of this practice on learners' attitudes towards it. To this aim, a total of 38 university students of English who were passing…

The study compares EFL writers' processes in composing reading-based writing (RW) and graph-based writing (GW) tasks developed for a university English proficiency exam. Think-aloud protocols and interviews of ten university-level nonnative English-speaking writers were collected to explore writers' composing processes. The results revealed that…