Background: The professional knowledge of pre-service teachers is highly important for effective and successful teaching. In recent years, many research groups have been engaged in developing simulated classroom environments to capture especially the pedagogical knowledge (PK) of pre-service teachers, neglecting the content-related facets of…

This experimental study examined the influence of vocabulary and spelling on teachers' perceptions of English as a second language (ESL) essays. Sixty-nine pre-service teachers from Switzerland and Germany rated four upper-intermediate ESL argumentative essays and provided written comments on strengths and weaknesses of the student compositions.…

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…