Learner center assessment procedure and application is very crucial for students writing skills improvement. Hence, this study aimed to explore the effects of dynamic criteria mapping assessment on students' conceptions and writing skills development with reference to Vygotsky, zone of proximity development. To examine the issues, time series,…

This study examined how student's scores vary on two different writing assignments, what were the student's perceptions, and any correlations that may arise from the use of two different methods of providing formative feedback to high school juniors. Many studies support the use of technology and demonstrate how technology plays a significant role…

This article demonstrates the distortions arising from attempts to impose a rigid set of criteria on teacher assessment. The use of surface features of syntax and punctuation to determine grades created a situation where children's writing became artificial and lacking in interest.

This paper aims to explore topic effect on syntactic complexity in Chinese EFL learners' and English native speakers' writings. To this end, the paper examined 600 argumentative essays on two topics, using 14 measures of syntactic complexity to investigate whether there is significant difference in topic effect on EFL writings and ENS writings.…

This article introduces Peer Review Circles (PRC), a classroom task that fully engages learners in the peer review process. The authors had observed their undergraduate students were reluctant to do peer review and even more reluctant to use the comments received. To improve the peer review process, the authors decided to change it into a…

This validation study was undertaken to evaluate the construct of Formative Assessment of Writing (FAoW) operationalized by an instrument with 50 Likert scale items. To identify the EFL learners' experiences of FAoW practices, the instrument was first piloted with three EFL learners, and subsequently administered on a sample of 255 EFL learners…

The improvement of the writing skill with the help of modern computer programmes has gained considerable attention in the English as a Foreign Language writing learning process and the better understanding about the contributions of these technological programmes are needed in the field of education. This paper sought to shed light on the effects…

Electronic feedback given via word-processing software (e.g., track changes in Microsoft Word) allows for a simple way to provide feedback to students during the drafting process. Research has mostly focused on student attitudes toward electronic feedback, with little investigation of how feedback format might affect the quality of instructor…

Linguistic complexity serves as an important measure of second language (L2) writing development. Complexity indices, however, rarely feature in the studies of learner languages other than English. Additionally, L2 writing studies have been criticized for the lack of consistency in defining proficiency. The current study addresses these gaps by…

This study explored how task complexity, writing behaviors (i.e., pausing and revision behaviors), and writing performance (i.e., task completion, coherence and cohesion, language use, and expression and tone) influence and relate to each other. Thirty advanced-level Korean EFL undergraduates completed writing tasks differing in complexity. A…

From the perspective of complexity theory and based on Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis and the Triadic Componential Framework, this paper investigated the effect of manipulating task complexity along resource-dispersing dimension on L2 written performance. The results showed that: 1) Significant interactive effects were found between the two…

One way to investigate learner writing is by analyzing the most frequently recurring sequences of words, that is, lexical bundles. This paper presents results for lexical bundles analyses of a Malaysian corpus (MCSAW) against its reference language variety, LOCNESS (Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays). Key 4-word lexical bundles are firstly…

We conducted a skills analysis on written expression curriculum-based measurement (WE-CBM) tasks completed by 117 second-grade students. As part of the skills analysis, we scored two WE-CBM tasks (i.e., narrative and expository) for correct and incorrect writing sequences, common writing errors, and sentence structures. Although a majority of…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the comparative effect of dynamic and negotiated assessment on EFL learners' writing complexity and fluency. To this end, 72 female intermediate EFL participants, selected from a larger group of 103 learners based on their performances on a piloted PET, in Tak language institute in Dezfoul, Iran…

Incorporating counterarguments can be challenging for many student-writers, including those for whom English is a second or other language. In this study, we present findings that may lead to improvements in students' understanding of the benefits of integrating counterarguments. In our study, expert readers were presented with excerpts of student…