Employing G-theory and rater interviews, the study investigated how a high-stakes writing assessment procedure (i.e., a single-task, single-rater, and holistic scoring procedure) impacted the variability and reliability of its scores within the Turkish higher education context. Thirty-two essays written on two different writing tasks (i.e.,…

As student creativity is increasingly emphasized in English as a Foreign Language education, it is necessary to consider instructional techniques to encourage it. This study examines the effectiveness of two instructional techniques on creative writing performance of English as a Foreign Language students in a South Korean university. These…

This study explored the relationship between task complexity, textual emotionality, and linguistic complexity in second language (L2) writing. Fifty-eight L2 English learners performed simple and complex versions of an argumentative writing task manipulated along with resource-­directing variables. The essays were first analysed for textual…

With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks (e.g., the generative pre-trained transformer [GPT]), a growing number of researchers have started to explore its potential as an automated essay scoring (AES) system. While previous studies have investigated the alignment between human ratings and GPT ratings, few…

This study investigated the effect of consistent freewriting practice on written fluency development. Thirty-nine first-year university students completed 70 10-minute freewriting activities over the course of an academic semester. Written fluency, measured as words produced per minute (wpm), increased from a mean of 19.5 wpm to 30.1 wpm over a…

This study attempted to discern the factor structure of the achievement goal orientation and goal structure constructs across the domain-specific task of essay writing in an Iranian EFL context. A convenience sample of 116 public university learners participated in a single-session, in-class study of an essay writing sampling and an immediate…

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of using informal styles in academic writing, including research articles. To examine the degree of formality in students' writing, this corpus-based study aimed to analyze the formal linguistic features in the academic writing assignments of English-major students at a Thai university. The learner…

This study aims to develop a robust rubric for evaluating artificial intelligence (AI)--assisted essay writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Employing a modified Delphi technique, we conducted a comprehensive literature review and administered Likert scale questionnaires. This process yielded nine key evaluation criteria,…

The present study examined the effect of language background and topic on productive formulaic competence. Guided by usage-based theory of language learning, this study used a distribution-based approach to the examination of the native-likeness of formulaic usage in English timed argumentative writing. Six indices informed by a large-scale native…

This study used a mixed methods research design to investigate use of Web-based lexicographic tools during real-time second language (L2) writing activity in an English as a foreign language university context and the impact of their use on writing quality. Participants included 22 adult Japanese EFL learners, elementary to advanced language…

To determine the impacts of using ChatGPT to assist English as a foreign language (EFL) English college majors in revising essays and the possibility of leading to higher scores and potentially causing unfairness. A prospective, double-blinded, paired-comparison study was conducted in Feb. 2023. A total of 44 students provided 44 original essays…

This study explores the lexical profile of essays written by 48 advanced learners of second language (L2) Russian who participated in the Russian Overseas Flagship, an intensive year-long study abroad program designed to help students reach Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 proficiency in all skills. Using the lexical frequency profile…

Scoring essays written in L2 is one of the most arduous and time-taking tasks for language teachers due to the heavy work involved in the process. In this respect, the present study aimed to build a regression model to predict essay quality using only one or two rhetorical moves in the setting of an English Language Teaching department in Turkey.…

Integrated tasks are popularly known and accepted as an effective way of improving students' writing quality. However, it is still not clear to what really accounts for its effectiveness. This study examined whether the students who were facilitated by integrated task achieved higher writing quality than those who were not. Twenty - two students…

Using a smartphone is a very convenient way to learn languages in modern life. To understand the impact of the immersive environment created by a smartphone on essay writing in Chinese for second language learners, a study was conducted on 36 Vietnamese students in their first year at a university in Taiwan. This study adopted an experimental…