Automated writing evaluation (AWE) has been frequently used to provide feedback on student writing. Many empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of AWE on writing quality, but the results were inconclusive. Thus, the magnitude of AWE's overall effect and factors influencing its effectiveness across studies remained unclear. This study…

While learning activities and text production in language subjects typically include multiple forms of multimodal expression, assessment in the subjects continues to a great extent to depend on students' written texts. As a contribution to an increasing call for alignment of curricular activities and assessment, this article explores an approach…

Background: Data-driven learning (DDL) has been regarded as one of the promising approaches that could effectively enhance writing performance of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Although extensive research has been conducted on the use of DDL in developing various aspects of writing skill, there exist only few studies to date that…

This study reports the integrated findings of a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study that investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of mobile-based writing tools (MBWTs) as well as gender differences that emerged from these learning effects in the narrative writing skills of a group of sixth to seventh grade Latinx English Learners…

Analytical writing poses particularly challenging, yet often overlooked, language demands that need attention in educational research and practice. In this article, I discuss the Core Analytical Language Skills (CALS) construct and its relevance for school reading and writing. CALS refer to the set of learners' school-relevant language resources…

This paper examines the English grammatical errors and their patterns in the written assignments of a General Education course at City University of Hong Kong. Subjects are 60 local and non-local (exchange) undergraduate students who are all L2 learners with diversified education and disciplinary background (i. e. their major of study) which are…

Addressing the lack of studies on L2 online and collaborative prewriting, this study examines L2 collaborative prewriting through voice chat. It explores the effects of an online prewriting condition (individual vs collaborative) on performance in subsequent individual writing as assessed by text length, accuracy, complexity, and analytical rating…

We evaluated the validity of an automated approach to learning progress assessment (aLPA) for English written expression. Participants (n = 105) were students in Grades 2-12 who had parent-identified learning difficulties and received academic tutoring through a community-based organization. Participants completed narrative writing samples in the…

This article argues that the national trend to replace developmental writing programs with mainstreaming and corequisite courses presents an important opportunity to reconsider writing goals and assessment practices for all students. This insight emerges in part from data collected over several semesters at one community college, which showed that…

The paper assessed the linguistic and attitudinal effects of the product strategy for writing. The study adds to the current literature on the efficacy of a product strategy for Saudi EFL students. The respondents of the study were a total of 63 Saudi EFL undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia. The sample measurements were determined with a…

Using portfolio assessment to enhance teaching and learning of writing has been ongoing for more than two decades. Despite extensive research on portfolio assessment, not much attention has been paid to its wider implementation in EFL writing settings where alternative assessment is rarely encouraged. This paper fills this gap by arguing that when…

Although a growing body of research in writing has suggested that females outperform males in many aspects of writing, our understanding of gender differences is still limited. The present study aimed to examine the potential sources of gender differences in writing fluency and text quality across Arabic as a first language (L1) and English as a…

Classroom assessment practices can be confusing for many teachers. Terminology is numerous and elusive. Different types of assessment serve different purposes. This short discussion paper's contribution originates from my own attempt to determine whether analytic scales would be more appropriate than holistic scales for assessing the L2 writing…

Current mathematics curricula and assessments emphasize students' ability to communicate mathematical reasoning in writing. Limited research exists, however, on what mathematics writing (MW) is and how to assess the quality of MW. Therefore, based on our definition of MW construct, we explored 4 approaches to scoring MW: (a) holistic rubric…

When judging subject-specific aspects of students' texts, teachers should assess various characteristics, e.g., spelling and content, independently of one another since these characteristics are indicators of different skills. Independent judgments enable teachers to adapt their classroom instruction according to students' skills. It is still…