AssessingWriting

Group 8

MEGA PURNAMA SARIRONI JULISTIAN FAHLEFIRIANA TRI DHAMAYANTI

BibliographyBrown, H. Douglas, & Priyanvada Abeywickrama.

Language Assessment, Principle and Classroom Practices. 2010. United States of America.

Brown, J. D., & Bailey, K. M. A categorical instrument for scoring second language writing skills. Language Learning. 1984.

Cohen, A. D. Assesing language ability in the classroom (2nd ed.). 1994. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

TOPICS

• What to test• How to test• How to score• Examples

What to test

1. Micro-skills.2. Macro-skills.

Micro- and macroskills of writing

1. Microskills a. produce graphemes and orthographic

patterns of Englishb.Produce writing at an efficient rate of

speed to suit the purposec. Produce an acceptable core of words and

use appropriate word order patterns

What to test

d. Use acceptabble grammatical systems, patterns, and rules

e. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms

f. Use cohesive devices in written discourse

2. Macroskillsa. Use the rhetorical formsand conventions of

written discourseb. Appropriately accomplish the

communicative functions of written text according to form and purpose

c. Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as mainidea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification

d. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing

e. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text

f. Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the audience’s interpretation, using prewriting devices, writing with fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing.

How to test

1. Designing Assessment Task: Imitative writing.2. Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive

(controlled) writing.3. Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive And

Extensive Writing.

Designing Assessment Task: Imitative writing

1. Tasks in [hand]-Writing Letters, Words and Punctuation.• Copying• Listening cloze selection tasks• Picture-cued tasks• Form completion tasks• Converting numbers and abbreviations to

words

How to test

2. Spelling Tasks and detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences • spelling test• Picture-cued tasks•Multiple choice techniques •Matching phonetic symbols

Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive (controlled) writing

1. Dictation and Dicto-Comp [L,W]2. Pictured-Cued Tasks

varieties of picture cued controlled tasks:– Short sentence– Picture description– Picture sequence description

3. Vocabulary Assessment Tasks4. Short- Answer and Sentence-Completion Tasks

Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive And Extensive Writing1. Paraphrasing• Say something in one’s own words, avoid plagiarizing.• Informal and formative assessment• Scoring of the test-taker’s response is a judgment call

2. Guided Question and Answer• For writing stimuli• To prompt the test-taker to write from an outline.

3. Paragraph Construction TaskAssessment of paragraph:• Topic sentence writing• Topic development within a paragraph• Development of main and supporting ideas across

paragraphs

4. Strategic options• Attending to task• Attending to genre

5. Standardized test of responsive writing• The example is the Test of Written English(TWE)

Scoring methods for responsive and extensive writing?

1. Holistic scoring.2. Primary trait scoring.3. Analytic scoring.

How to score

Holistic scoring

Advantages :1. Fast evaluation.2. Relatively high inter-rater reliability.3. The fact that scores represent “Standard” that

are easily interpreted by lay persons.4. The fact that scores tend to emphasize the

writer’s strengths (Cohen, 1994, p.315)5. Applicability to writing across many different

disciplines.

Disadvantages :1. One score masks differences across the

subskills within each score.2. No diagnostic information is available (No

washback potential).3. The scale may not apply equally well to all

genres of writing.4. Raters need to be extensively trained to use

the scale accurately.

Primary trait scoring

What would assess :1. The accuracy of the account of the original

(summary).2. The clarity of the steps of the procedure and

the final result (lab report).3. The description of the main features of the

graph (graph description).4. The expression of the writer’s opinion

(response to an article).

Analytic scoring

Analytic scoring may be more appropiately called analytic assessment to capture its closer assosiation with classroom language instruction than with formal testing.

Brown and Bailey (1994) designed an analytical scoring scale that specified five major categories and a description of five different levels in each category, ranging from “unacceptable” to “excellent”.

Beyond Scoring: Responding to Extensive Writing

1. Assesing Initial Stages of the Process of Composing.

2. Assessing Later Stages of the Process of Composing.

Assesing Initial Stages of the Process of Composing1. Focus your efforts primarily on meaning, main idea, and

organization.2. Comment on the introductory paragraph.3. Make general comments about the clarity of the main idea and

logic or appropriateness of the organization.4. As a rule of thumb, ignore minor (local) grammatical and lexical

errors.5. Indicate what appear to be major (global) errors (e.g., by

underlining the text in question) but allow the writer to make corrections.

6. Do not rewrite questionable, ungrammatical, or awkward sentences; rather, probe with a question about meaning.

7. Comment on features that appear to be irrelevant to the topic.

Assessing Later Stages of the Process of Composing1. Comment of the specific clarity and strength of all main ideas

and supporting ideas and on argument and logic.2. Call attention to minor (“local”) grammatical and mechanical

(spelling, punctuation) errors but direct the writer to self-correct.

3. Comment on any further word choices and expression that may not be awkward but are not as clear or direct as they could be.

4. Point out any problems with cohesive devices within and across paragraphs.

5. If appropriate, comment on documentation, citation of sources, avidence, and other support.

6. Comment on the adequacy and strenght of the conclusion.

Examples

Sub-topics to be discussed1. Genres of Written Language?2. Types of written performance?3. Micro- and macroskills of writing?4. Designing assessment Task: Imitative writing?5. Designing assessment Tasks: Intensive (controlled)

writing?6. Issues In assessing Responsive And Extensive Writing?7. Designing assessment Tasks: Responsive And Extensive

Writing?8. Scoring methods for responsive and extensive writing?9. Beyond Scoring: Responding to Extensive Writing

What are Genres of Written Language?1. Academic writing

papers, essays compositions, journals, short answer test responses, thesis.

2. Job-related writing

messages, letters or e-mails, memo, advertisement, announcements.

3. Personal writing

letters, e-mails, greeting cards, invitation, notes, shopping list, diaries, fiction.

What are types of written performance?

There are four categories of written performance:

1. Imitative• Learner masters the mechanics of writing• Form is the primary focus.

2. Intensive(controlled)• Learner determines the correctness and the

appropriateness of meaning and context.

3. Responsive• Learner masters the fundamentals of sentence-level

grammar• Focus on discourse conventions.• Emphasize on context in meaning

4. Extensive• The management of all the processes and

strategies of writing for all purpose.• Grammatical form is limited to

occasional editing.

What are Issues In Assessing Responsive And Extensive Writing?

1. Authenticity• Content validity• Authentic real-word context• Formative, not summative• Washback is more important2. Scoring• There are many different scoring options3. Time• Relies on essential drafting process