The feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) framework offers a novel perspective for analyzing second language (L2) learners' proactive agency in processing teacher feedback. While research has identified associations among language mindsets, goal orientations, and FSB in L2 speaking classes, this line of inquiry should be extended to L2 writing education…

Both of us were drawn into the writing assessment field initially through our lived experiences as schoolteachers. We worked in radically different contexts -- Martin was head of a languages department and teacher of French and German in the late 1990s in the UK, and David was a Grade 12 teacher of Academic English in Alberta, Canada, at the turn…

This study examines the potential effect of service-learning training on 38 EFL teachers from the public schools of the North-Eastern Badia Directorate of Education, Mafraq, Jordan. A quasi-experimental design was used, and the participants were randomly assigned into an experimental group (n=18) and a control group (n=20). As part of the…

Background: Marking of essays is mainly carried out by human raters who bring in their own subjective and idiosyncratic evaluation criteria, which sometimes lead to discrepancy. This discrepancy may in turn raise issues like reliability and fairness. The current research attempts to explore the evaluation criteria of markers on a national level…

A developmental writing scale for timed essay-writing performance was created on the basis of automatically computed indicators of writing fluency, word choice, and conventions of standard written English. In a large-scale data collection effort that involved a national sample of more than 12,000 students from 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade,…

Test-based accountability programs are designed to promote improved standards of teaching and learning within the systems of education that they are connected to. Brenan [Brenan, A. L. (2006). "Perspectives on the evolution and future of educational measurement." In: Robert (Ed.), "Educational measurement" (4th ed., pp. 1-16).…

Analyzes score differences for the papers of 50 students who wrote on four different writing topics, two that were on transactional and two that were on expressive topics. Results suggested that differences between scores might be very important for individuals, so to insure fairness, teachers should use additional forms of writing assessment. (DF)

This study investigates the construct validity of profiles of high school students' (n=92) writing competence obtained from tasks designed to be parallel on all dimensions but discourse mode (expository or narrative) and response mode (direct or indirect). (Author/PN)

Explores writing research on the composing process regarding the relationship of the topic selected to the score obtained, the relationship of the score to the use of both an outline and a rough draft, and the relationship of the amount of revision to the quality of essays obtained. (EL)

Using essays written by twelfth grade students, a study explored the relationship of Halliday and Hasan's system for analyzing cohesion and instructors' ranking of textual coherence. (HOD)

Examines the relationship between syntactic complexity and quality ratings of narrative and argumentative writing of students in grades 6, 10, and 12. (HOD)

Describes a successful paper exchange program between eighth-grade students and high school seniors. States that the peer evaluations created audience awareness and motivated students' writing efforts. (MM)

Describes a year-long evaluation procedure in which students accomplish greater involvement in assessing their own learning, beginning with a first-day questionnaire on learning and writing assumptions, continuing with writing workshop experiences, and culminating in a coursework evaluation project and publication. (KEH)

High school students' preferences for teacher versus computer feedback on written compositions were studied. Three compositions composed at the terminal were evaluated by the teacher, a computer grammar checker, and the student's choice of teacher or computer. Questionnaires indicated that students strongly favored teacher evaluation because of…

A goal of this double issue of English Teaching: Practice and Critique is to collectively consider what we mean when we talk about knowledge about language. How have our understandings changed over time? What are the implications of these new understandings for pedagogy in the field of language teaching? These are necessary and important…