Within the context of Chinese university education, effective communication in the field of second language writing heavily relies on lexical complexity, yet the role of writing feedback perception in relation to lexical complexity remains elusive. This study introduces a comprehensive writing feedback perception model encompassing perceptions of…

This study mainly explored the effects of teacher feedback, peer feedback and automated feedback on the use of metacognitive strategies in EFL writing. Ninety-seven participants were recruited and divided into three groups, who received two months of feedback from teachers, peers and an automatic writing evaluation system, respectively, and then…

In the existing literature, scholars have proposed various indices to measure the lexical richness (LR) of English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. However, there are currently issues of redundant indices and inconsistent usage. Attempting to address the research question of which indices are the most sensitive and effective ones to…

This quasi-experimental research investigates the employment of a formative assessment platform aided by artificial intelligence in an English public speaking course. The platform integrates deep learning, automatic speech recognition, and automatic writing evaluation. It provides automated assessment and immediate feedback on speakers' public…

From a positive psychology perspective, this case study explores learners' academic emotions in giving and receiving peer feedback on second language writing and the possible influences of emotions on learners' uptake of peer feedback. The data were collected from five undergraduates at a Chinese university, including semi-structured interviews,…

Peer feedback activities are characterized by peers performing both roles of feedback provider and receiver, and peers are found to benefit from both roles. However, in current feedback literacy studies, the emphasis has been overwhelmingly given to students' understandings, capacities and dispositions in receiving feedback, and existing student…

Although the literature widely acknowledges the benefits of formative writing assessment in daily teaching, there is limited understanding of how frontline teachers implement it and the reasons behind their approach, particularly in EFL secondary school contexts where assessment has predominantly served selective purposes. Drawing on interviews,…

Research on how peer feedback affects second language (L2) writing in higher education has been limited. This study examines the impact of peer feedback on revision and literature review writing in learners of Chinese as an L2 at a university in mainland China. The study analyzed feedback, revisions, and writing performance of 30 students. The…

It is widely believed that raters' cognition is an important aspect of writing assessment, as it has both logical and temporal priority over scores. Based on a critical review of previous research in this area, it is found that raters' cognition can be boiled to two fundamental issues: building text images and strategies for articulating scores.…

Task design has been viewed to be essential in the context of language assessment. This study investigated whether increasing task complexity affects learners' writing performance. It employs three writing tasks with different levels of complexity based on Robinson's Componential Framework. A cohort of 278 participants was selected using a simple…

This paper proposes to use depth perception to represent raters' decision in holistic evaluation of ESL essays, as an alternative medium to conventional form of numerical scores. The researchers verified the new method's accuracy and inter/intra-rater reliability by inviting 24 ESL teachers to perform different representations when rating 60…

In this study, an explanatory sequential design was utilized to examine the impact of strategy-based instruction (SBI) on the writing performance and motivation of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a writing course. A total of 50 Chinese EFL students were selected from two intact classes and were randomly assigned to either the…

The current assessment in language classrooms prevailingly utilizes the criteria provided by instructors, regarding learners as passive recipients of assessment. The current study drew upon sustainable assessment and the community of practice to highlight the importance of involving learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria and argued…

This study aims to explore to what extent syntactic complexity predicts holistic scores generated by China's two prominent automated writing evaluation systems--"pigai" and "iWrite," the results of which will have some implications for the validity of these two systems. In the meanwhile, this study targets how syntactic…

Enhancing writing pedagogy in university-based courses for students of English as a foreign language has been a long-term goal of educators and researchers. Most recent work, however, has relied on qualitative methodologies that limit our capacity to generalize findings. In this quantitative study, the authors adopted a quasi-experimental control…