Reflective case narratives are a practical mechanism for conveying lessons learned for practice improvement. Their ability to transform experience into knowledge in a colloquial, narrative style positions reflective case narratives as a powerful learning tool with pedagogical benefits for the evaluation community. However, one criticism of…

This dissertation will broaden the purview of recent scholarship pertaining to socially just writing assessments by making connections among assemblage theory and materialism, studies of ecological and anti-racist assessments, and studies of writing center work, to ground theoretical conversations in everyday practices. Focusing on systemic…

Cohesion features were calculated for a corpus of 960 essays by 480 test-takers from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in order to examine differences in the use of cohesion devices between integrated (source-based) writing and independent writing samples. Cohesion indices were measured using an automated textual analysis tool, the…

This study examined whether 2 evidence-based intervention strategies resulted in maintenance and generalization of writing fluency gains. In this study, 115 third-grade students were randomly assigned to a performance feedback intervention condition, a goal setting intervention condition, or a control condition. Neither intervention strategy…

In this research report, we describe the design and empirical findings for a large-scale study of essay writing ability with approximately 2,500 high school students in Germany and Switzerland on the basis of 2 tasks with 2 associated prompts, each from a standardized writing assessment whose scoring involved both human and automated components.…

Many assessments of writing proficiency that aid in making high-stakes decisions consist of several essay tasks evaluated by a combination of human holistic scores and computer-generated scores for essay features such as the rate of grammatical errors per word. Under typical conditions, a summary writing score is provided by a linear combination…

Previous studies have examined learner factors such as anxiety, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation in ESL/EFL (English as a second language/English as a foreign language) writing. Studies have affirmed that self-efficacy and achievement motivation could enhance writing performance, whereas anxiety may hinder writing achievement. This study…

Threats to construct validity should be reduced to a minimum. If true, sources of bias, namely raters, items, tests as well as gender, age, race, language background, culture, and socio-economic status need to be spotted and removed. This study investigates raters' experience, language background, and the choice of essay prompt as potential…

Despite the fact that there has been a growing body of research investigating the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) for improving L2 learners' writing accuracy, fewer studies have investigated learners' preferences and perceptions of WCF. This paper, which is based on a doctoral research project, reports on an exploratory study…

While research on peer feedback in second language (L2) writing at university/college level has proliferated, scholars have conducted less research on peer feedback in L2 academic and scholarly writing. Drawing upon multiple sources of data including semi-structured interviews, stimulated recalls, online interviews via WeChat, first and revised…

Over the past several decades, writing assessment has evolved in an ever-growing attempt to provide contextual fairness to a student while maintaining standards across a larger community. This study analyzed writing assessment at a Saudi English Language Institute (ELI) by first discussing teaching and learning in an EFL context before examining…

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…

Tennessee's public community college system implemented corequisite remediation for underprepared students during the Fall 2015 semester. As a result of the Tennessee Board of Regents corequisite remediation initiative, students with academic placement scores determined to be below college level on an instrument such as the ACT often work in the…

Peer-feedback efficiency might be influenced by the oftentimes voiced concern of students that they perceive their peers' competence to provide feedback as inadequate. Feedback literature also identifies mindful processing of (peer)feedback and (peer)feedback content as important for its efficiency, but lacks systematic investigation. In a 2 × 2…

Foreign language programs in schools have a strong focus on the development of communicative language ability and, increasingly, assessment tasks are designed to capture communicative abilities required for real-world situations. In communicative test tasks, sociolinguistic and discourse components, which are beyond grammatical accuracy, target…