This paper attempts to demonstrate the differences in writing between International English Language Testing System (IELTS) bands 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0. An analysis of exemplars provided from the IELTS test makers reveals that IELTS 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 writers can make a minimum of 206 errors, 96 errors and 35 errors per 1000 words. The following section…

Previous research has shown that high frequency lexical items, such as AWL words and formulaic expressions, may differentiate between texts written by expert and novice writers (Chen & Baker, 2010; Hancioglu, 2009), and that lexical features related to breadth, depth, and accessibility differentiate among texts from L2 writers of different…

This study reports an action research on the use of pictures series technique to develop EFL narrative writing among a group of ninth graders at Institución Educativa Simon Araujo. It involves Experimental and Control groups. During the implementation of the strategy the Experiment group was taught writing with picture series technique and the…

In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan, engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) as a partner to support the development of a national learning assessment program in Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, the Learning Assessment unit of the Ministry of Education and ACER have collaborated to design and implement the…

Since high school students are failing to master writing proficiency, developmental writing programs at the college level have become increasingly necessary. This article explains the lack of readiness with which students are entering college and the workplace, examines the reasons students are having trouble writing, and describes elements of…

This study is intended to investigate student's achievement capability among two families i.e. Low and High income families and designed for primary level learners. A Reading, Arithmetic and Writing (RAW) Achievement test that was developed as a part of another research study (Tamim Ahmed Khan, 2015) was adopted for this study. Both English medium…

A quasi-experimental study examined some effects of cross-age tutoring on fourth grade tutors' and second grade tutees' ability to spell accurately and correct errors on their own rough drafts. Half of the participating tutors were trained in tutoring skills; half were not. All participants were given pre- and post-assessments. On dictated writing…

This memorandum describes the SAT participation and performance for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Class of 2016 compared with the graduating seniors in Maryland and the nation. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students continued to outperform their peers in the state of Maryland and the nation on the SAT according to the…

On the writing component of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, 12th grade high school students' scores on argumentative tasks were lower than on tasks that required them to explain or to convey an experience ("National Assessment of Educational Progress," 2011). Similarly, 11th and 12th graders at the research…

The present study was conducted to explore the impact of explicit collocation instruction on the ESL learners' writing ability. Furthermore, this study was an attempt to find if there is any significant difference between male and female learners on their use of collocations in writing tasks. In so doing, 63 advanced English as a Second Language…

This article discusses three sets of challenges involved in the assessment of writing from a developmental perspective. These challenges include defining a workable theory of development, developing a suitable construct, and overcoming limitations in technocentric approaches to writing assessment. In North America in recent years, a burgeoning…

Whether foreign language writing is rated using analytic rating scales or holistically, the organization of ideas is invariably one of the aspects assessed. However, it is unclear what raters are sensitive to when rating writing for organization. Which do they value more highly, the physical aspects of organization, such as paragraphing and the…

In an "ex post facto" causal-comparative research design, this study investigated the effectiveness of a formative writing assessment program, Write Score, on increasing student writing achievement. Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) reading language arts and writing scores from 2012 were utilized for this study. The…

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide SAT participation and performance for the 2017 graduates in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The College Board redesigned the SAT with the goal of measuring essential skills for college and career as well as relating the test content to everyday learning in classrooms. The redesigned SAT was…

This report describes the initial automated scoring results that were obtained using the constructed responses from the Writing and Speaking sections of the pilot forms of the "TOEFL Junior"® Comprehensive test administered in late 2011. For all of the items except one (the edit item in the Writing section), existing automated scoring…