Syntactic Complexity Measures as Indicators of Teaching L2 Academic English Writing

The purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of reforming academic English writing instruction via the perspective of the syntactic complexity of L2 learners' practice. The present study evaluates 14 measures of syntactic complexity as indicators of language growth in academic writing by 52 Chinese undergraduate students. The findings indicate that an intensive academic teaching design can be used to help students enhance their academic writing output ability. The findings of this study provide direct quantitative evidence for altering classroom instruction, textbook compilation, assessment practice, and curriculum development at the undergraduate level for academic English.

Synchronous collaborative writing instruction in a university EFL context: Challenges and solutions

This study explored EFL instructors’ perceptions and practices to identify challenges of teaching synchronous collaborative writing (SCW) and then proposed solutions to the problems. The instructor survey of practices in online English writing instruction was sent to 52 instructors from 15 regional universities in Thailand; 51 responded to the survey and, after selection, 24 participants were included. Data also included classroom observations and interviews. The participants felt unprepared to teach SCW because of insufficient online pedagogical skills in engaging students in the classroom and a lack of technology skills in managing online classrooms, facilitating real-time collaborative writing and giving objective formative assessments. The findings suggest that EFL instructors improve their teaching quality regarding student engagement, goals, content, tools, classroom management strategies, instructor and student roles, SCW activities and assessment. These discoveries enable educators to develop contextualised guidelines for SCW practices and suggest initial preparation for EFL cyber education. Keywords: Online learning challenges, synchronous collaborative writing, EFL writing teaching practices, EFL writing instruction

English Writing Instruction in Chinese Students’ Experience: A Survey Study

While there is no lack of studies on the major approaches to L2 writing instruction (i.e., the product-, process-, and genre-oriented approaches), it remains unclear whether and how these theory-based approaches have been translated into students’ experiences of L2 writing pedagogy. This study examined students’ experiences of L2 writing instructional approaches in the Chinese EFL context. A sample of 1,190 students from 39 Chinese universities participated in the study and they were surveyed about the English writing instruction they received in universities. Results show that the process-oriented approach was most experienced by the students, followed by the genre- and product-oriented approaches. Results of latent profile analyses revealed four distinct profiles of writing pedagogy in students’ experiences: the indistinctive pattern, the product-dominant pattern, the process/genre-dominant pattern, and the synthetic pattern. These patterns indicate that writing instructions in the Chinese university-based English programs have yet to meet the demand for students’ L2 writing development. This study contributes to our knowledge of how L2 writing instructional approaches have been experienced by students of various demographic backgrounds and to how writing curricula and pedagogies can be further improved.

Unveiling the Scoring Validity of Two Chinese Automated Writing Evaluation Systems: A Quantitative Study

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has been a burgeoning industry in China, one case in point being the extensive employment of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) systems in college English writing instruction to reduce teachers’ workload. Nonetheless, what warrants a special mention is that most teachers include automatic scores in the formative evaluation of relevant courses with scant attention to the scoring efficacy of these systems (Bai & Wang, 2018; Wang & Zhang, 2020). To have a clearer picture of the scoring validity of two commercially available Chinese AWE systems (Pigai and iWrite), the present study sampled 486 timed CET-4 (College English Test Band-4) essays produced by second-year non-English majors from 8 intact classes. Data comprising the maximum score difference, agreement rate, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Cohen’s Kappa were collected to showcase human-machine and machine-machine congruence. Quantitative linguistic features of the sample essays, including accuracy, lexical and syntactic complexity, and discourse features, were also gleaned to investigate the differences (or similarities) in construct representation valued by both systems and human raters. Results show that (1) Pigai and iWrite largely agreed with each other but differed a lot from human raters in essay scoring; (2) high-human-score essays were prone to be assigned low machine scores; (3) machines relied heavily on the quantifiable features, which, however, had limited impacts on human raters.

Upper secondary school students’ perceptions of and experiences with feedback in English writing instruction

This paper presents a survey of student perceptions of feedback in English writing in a context where formative assessment is mandatory. The study comprises 329 first year upper secondary school students from seven schools in eastern Norway, and uses a survey to examine their perceptions of and experiences with feedback in EFL writing instruction. Overall, the findings reveal that students receive varied feedback, on language as well as global errors, but primarily to finished and graded texts. There is little use of feedback between drafts, or of oral conferencing and peer-feedback. While many students do not follow up feedback at all, those who do tend to focus on language error correction and less on global errors. However, student follow up in general, and of global errors in particular, increases markedly with unfinished and ungraded texts, possibly because of available time and teacher support during the revision process. This indicates that feedback utilization can be improved by setting aside classroom time to work with texts between drafts during which students can receive teacher support, and by making this an integrated part of English writing instruction. Key words: L 2 writing instruction, feedback/formative feedback, formative assessment, multiple-sourced feedback. Elevers oppfatninger om og erfaringer med tilbakemeldinger de får i skriveundervisningen i engelskfaget i den vidergående skole Sammendrag Denne artikkelen presenterer en kvantitativ studie av tilbakemeldinger i engelsk skriveundervisning i en kontekst hvor formativ vurdering er læreplanfestet. Den undersøker hvordan 329 norske VG1-studenter fra syv videregående skoler i øst Norge opplever og følger opp tilbakemeldingene de får som del av engelskfagets skriveundervisning. Funnene viser at studentene får variert feedback, med god balanse mellom kommentarene på språkfeil som på mer generelle feil med teksten, men at tilbakemeldingene først og fremst gis til ferdige tekster med karakter. Det er lite bruk av feedback til uferdige, ikke karaktervurderte tekster, av muntlig veiledning og av feedback fra andre studenter. Mens mange studenter ikke følger opp feedback overhodet, øker oppfølgingen, av språkfeil og i enda større grad av såkalte «globale» feil, markant de relativt sjeldne gangene de får til å arbeide med uferdige, ikke karaktervurderte tekster. Dette tyder på at utnyttelsen av feedback kan bedres ved at elevene får arbeide med uferdige tekster og med lærerstøtte mens de reviderer, og dette gjøres til en integrert del av engelskundervisningen. Nøkkelord: L2 skriving, skriveundervisning tilbakemeldinger, formativ vurdering, vurdering for læring, ulike tilbakemeldingsmodaliteter

Co-constructing the assessment criteria for EFL writing by instructors and students: A participative approach to constructively aligning the CEFR, curricula, teaching and learning

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 that using the criteria provided by instructors could lead to discrepancy between assessment, teaching, and learning. It adopted a participatory approach and investigated how to involve learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria with instructors in tertiary English writing instruction in China, based on the European Language Profile (ELP), an evolved version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Two writing instructors and 146 tertiary students played different, yet interactive roles in adapting the assessment criteria in the local context. Instructors drafted the criteria in line with curricula, teaching, learning and learners. Learners utilized the draft criteria in a training session and suggested possible modifications to the criteria in a survey. Suggestions were used to revise the descriptors alongside teachers’ reflections via reflective logs. A follow-up survey explored students’ perceptions of the feasibility and usefulness of the modified descriptors to investigate the effectiveness of co-constructing the assessment criteria for learning and reveal further improvement if necessary. Vigilant decision-making processes were thickly described regarding how assessment descriptors were selected, arranged, and modified to constructively align them with curricula, teaching, and learning. Statistical and thematic analyses were conducted to examine the accessibility, feasibility, and usefulness of the assessment descriptors prior to and after the modifications. Results substantiated the effectiveness and thus the importance of co-constructing assessment criteria for enhancing the quality of assessment criteria and developing learners’ cognitive and metacognitive knowledge of writing and assessment. Implications for language tutors regarding co-constructing assessment criteria in local contexts were deliberated on at the end of the article.

An Experimental Study of Teaching English Writing with OBE in Chinese Senior High School

Writing is a distinctly important language output skill. Students can organize and process the learned language knowledge through writing to realize the re-creation of knowledge. Writing is the best performance of students’ comprehensive use of language ability and it plays an essential role in language instruction. The Outcome-Based Education originated in the United States in the 20th century. It is represented by Spicer, based on the four basic principles of clear objectives, expanded opportunities, high expectations and reverse design. In order to solve the unfavorable tendency of the separation of learning and use in instruction in China, this study attempts to apply the instruction model based on OBE to a unit teaching referring to an eight-week experiment for eight teaching hours. The research subjects are senior students of two classes in Grade 2 of a middle school in Henan Province. After collecting data, the qualitative and quantitative analysis have been carried out with SPSS 17.0. Meanwhile, students and teachers are surveyed and interviewed before and after the experiment to show their psychological feedback and actual changes during the teaching experiment with OBE. Through research and experiments, the following findings are obtained: First, in view of current conditions of English writing instruction in Chinese high schools, the English writing instruction model with OBE can help students improve their abilities of language production. Second, compared with the traditional English writing teaching mode, it can stimulate students’ interest in learning and applying language, and reduce their negative emotions such as anxiety, passiveness and helplessness.