Summary "Assessing Reading and Assessing Writing"
Nama: Umi Kalsum Ilham
NPM: 03061811022
Class: A/IV
Subject: Language Assessment
Summary 14
ASSESSING READING
Even as we are bombarded with an unending supply of visual and auditory n1edia, the written word continues in its function to convey information, to amuse and entertain us, to codify' our social, economic, and legal conventions, and -to fulfill a host of other functions. In literate societies, most "normal" children learn to read by the age of five or six, and some even earlier. With the exception of a small number of people with learning disabilities, reading is a skill that is taken for granted.
In foreign language learnig, reading is likewise a skill that teachers simply expect learners to acquire. Basic, beginning-level textbooks in a foreign language presuppose a student's reading ability ifonly because it's a book that is the medium. Most formal tests use the written word' as a stimulus for test-taker response; even oral interviews may require reading performance for certain tasks. Reading, arguably the most essential skill for success in all educational contexts, remains a skill of paramount importance as we create assessments of general language ability.
Is reading so natural and normal that learners should simply be exposed to written texts with no particular instruction? Will they just absorb the skills necessary to convert their perception of a handful of letters into meaningful chunks of information? Not necessarily. For learners of English, two primary hurdles must be cleared in order to become efficient readers. First, they need to be 'able to master fundamental bottom-up strategies for processing separate letters, words, and phrases, as well as top-down, conceptually driven strategies for comprehension.
The assessment of reading ability does not end with the measurement of comprehension. Strategic pathways to full understanding are often important factors to include in assessing learners, especially in the case of most classroom assessments that are formative in nature.
As we consider a number of different types or genres of written texts, the components of reading ability, and specific tasks that are commonly used in the assessment of reading, let's not forget the unobservable nature of reading. Like listening, one cannot see the process of reading, nor can one observe a specific product of reading.
TYPES (GENRES) OF READING
Each type or genre of written text has its own set of governing rules and conventions. A reader must be able to anticipate those conventions in order to process meaning efficiently. With an extraordinary number of genres present in any literate culture, the· reader's ability to process texts must be very sophisticated.
The genre of a text enables readers to apply certain schemata that will assist them in extracting appropriate meaning. If for example readers know that a text is a recipe, they will expect a certain arrangement of information (ingredients) and will know to search for a sequential order of directions. Efficient readers also have to know what their purpose is in reading a text, the strategies for accomplishing that purpose, and how to retain the information.
The content validity of an assessment procedure is largely established through the genre of a text. For example, if learners in a program of English for tourism have been learning how to deal with customers needing to arrange bus tours, then assessments of their ability should include guidebooks, maps, transportation schedules, calendars, and other relevant texts.
MICROSKTIJS, MACRO SKILLS, AND STRATEGIES FOR READING
Aside from attending to genres of text, the skills and strategies for accomplishing reading emerge as a crucial consideration in the assessment of reading ability.
The assessment of reading can imply the assessment of a storehouse of reading strategies, as indicated in item #14. Aside from simply testing the ultimate achievement of comprehension of a written text, it may be important in some contexts to assess one or more of a storehouse of classic reading strategies.
TYPES OF READING
In the previous chapters we saw that both listening and speaking could be subdivided into at least five different types of listening and speaking performance. In the case of reading, variety of performance is derived more from the multiplicity of types of texts (the genres listed above) than from the variety of overt types of performance. Nevertheless, for considering assessment procedures, several types of reading performance are typically identified, and these will serve as organizers of various assessment tasks.
Perceptive. In keeping with the set of categories specified for listening comprehension, similar specifications are offered here; except with some differing terminology to capture the uniqueness of reading.
Selective. This category is largely an artifact of assessment formats. In order to ascertain one's reading recognition of lexical, grammatical, or discourse features of language within a very short stretch of language, certain typical tasks are used: picture-cued tasks, matching, true/false, multiple-choice, etc.
Interactive. Included among interactive reading types are stretches of language of several paragraphs to one page or more in which the reader must, in a psycholinguistic sense, interact with the text.
Extensive. Extensive reading, as discussed in this book, applies to texts of more than a page, up to and including professional articles, essays, technical reports, short stories, and books.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: PERCEPTIVE READING
At the beginning level of reading a second language lies a set of tasks that are fundamental and basic: recognition of alphabetic symbols, capitalized and lowercase letters, punctuation, and grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Such tasks of perception are often referred to as literacy tasks, implying that the learner is in the early stages of becoming "literate." Some learners are already literate in their own native language, but in other cases the second language may be the first language that they have ever learned to read. This latter context poses cognitive and sometimes age-related issues that need to be considered carefully. Assessment of literacy is no easy assignment, and if you are interested in this particular challenging area, further reading beyond this book is advised (Harp, 1991; Farr &Tone, 1994; Genesee, 1994; Cooper, 1997). Assessment of basic reading skills may be carried out in a number of different ways.
Reading Aloud
The test-taker sees separate letters, words, and/or short sentences and reads them aloud, one by one, in the presence of an administrator. Since the assessment is of reading comprehension, any recognizable oral approximation of the target response is considered correct.
Written Response
The same stimuli are presented, and the test-takers task is to reproduce the probe in writing. Because of the transfer across different skills here, evaluation of the test takers response must be carefully treated. If an error occurs, make sure you determine its source; what might be assumed to be a writing error, for example, may actually be a reading error, and vice versa.
Multiple-Choice
Multiple-choice responses are not only a matter of choosing one of four or five possible answers. Other formats, some of which are especially useful at the low levels of reading, include same/different, circle the answer, true/false, choose the letter, and matching.
Picture-Cued Items
Test-takers are shown a picture, such as the one on the next page, along with a written text and are given one of a number of possible tasks to perform.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: SELECTIVE READING
Just above the rudimentary skill level of perception of letters and words is a category in which the test designer focuses on formal aspects of language (lexical, grammatical, and a few discourse features). This category includes what many incorrectly think of as testing "vocabulary and grammar." How many textbooks provide little tests and quizzes labeled "vocabulary and grammar" and never feature any other skill besides reading? Lexical an9- grammatical aspects of language are simply the forms we use to perform all four of the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. (Notice that in all of these chapters on the four skills, formal features of language have become a potential focus for assessment.)
Multiple-Choice (for Form-Focused Criteria)
By far the most popular method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is the multiple-choice format, mainly for reasons of practicality: it is easy to administer and can be scored quickly.
Matching Tasks
At this selective level of reading, the test-taker's task is simply to respond correctly, which makes matching an appropriate format. The most frequently appearing criterion in matching procedures is vocabulary.
Matching tasks have the advantage of offering an alternative to traditional multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank formats and are sometimes easier to construct than multiple-choice items, as long as the test designer has chosen the matches carefully. Some disadvantages do come with this framework, however. They can become more of a puzzle-solving process than a genuine test of comprehension as test-takers struggle with the search for a match, possibly among 10 or 20 different items. Like other tasks in this section, they also are contrived exercises that are endemic to academia that will seldom be found in the real world.
Editing Tasks
Editing for grammatical or rhetorical errors is a widely used test method for assessing linguistic competence in reading. The TOEFL® and many "other tests employ this technique with the argument that it not only focuses on grammar but also, introduces a simulation of the authentic task of editing, or discerning errors in written passages. Its authenticity may be supported if you consider proofreading as a real-world skill that is being tested.
Picture-Cued Tasks
In the previous section we looked at picture-cued tasks for perceptive recognition of symbols and words. Pictures and photographs may be equally well utilized for examining ability at the selective level. Several types of picture-cued methods are commonly used.
Test-takers read a sentence or passage and choose one of four pictures that is being described.
Test-takers read a series of sentences or definitions, each describing a labeled part of a picture or diagram. Their task is to identify each labeled item.
Gap-Filling Tasks
Many of the multiple-choice tasks described above can be converted into gap-filling, or "fill-in-the-blank items in which the test-taker's response is to write a word or phrase. An extension of simple gap filling tasks is to create sentence completion items where test-takers read part of a sentence and then complete it by writing a phrase.
The obvious disadvantage of this type of task is its questionable assessment of reading ability. The task requires both reading and writing performance, thereby rendering it of low validity in isolating reading as the sole criterion. Another drawback is scoring the variety of creative responses that are likely to appear. You will have to make a number of judgment calls on what comprises a correct response. In a test of reading comprehension only, you must accept as correct any responses that demonstrate comprehension of the first part of the sentence.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTERACTIVE READING
Tasks at this level, like selective tasks, have a combination of form-focused and meaning focused objectives but with more emphasis on meaning. Interactive tasks may therefore imply a little more focus on top-down processing than on bottom-up. Texts are a little longer, from a paragraph to as much as a page or so in the case of ordinary prose. Charts, graphs, and other graphics may be somewhat complex in their format.
Cloze Tasks
One of the most popular types of reading assessment task is the cloze procedure. The word close was coined by educational psychologists to capture the Gestalt psychological concept of "closure," that is, the ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete image (visual; auditory, or cognitive) and supply (from background schemata) " omitted details.
In written language, a sentence with a word left out should have enough context that a reader can close that gap with a calculated guess, using linguistic expectancies (formal schemata), background experience (content schemata), and some strategic competence. Based on this assumption, cloze tests were developed for native language readers and defended as an appropriate gauge of reading ability.
Cloze tests are usually a minimum of two paragraphs in length in order to account for discourse expectancies. They can be constructed relatively easily as long as the specifications for choosing deletions and for scoring are clearly defined. Typically every seventh word (plus or minus two) is deleted (known as fixed-ratio deletion), but many cloze test designers instead use a rational deletion procedure of choosing deletions according to the grammatical or discourse functions of the words. Rational deletion also allows the designer to avoid deleting words that would be difficult to predict from the context. For example, in the sentence "Everyone in the crowd enjoyed the gorgeous sunset," the seventh word is gorgeous, but learners could easily substitute other appropriate adjectives.
Two approaches to the scoring of cloze tests are commonly used. The exact word method gives credit to test-takers only if they insert the exact word that was originally deleted. The second method, appropriate word scoring, credits the test-taker for supplying any word that is grammatically correct and that makes good sense in the context. In the sentence above about the "gorgeous sunset," the test-takers would get credit for supplying beautiful, amazing, and spectacular. The choice between the two methods of scoring is one of practicality/reliability vs. face validity. In the exact word approach, scoring can be done quickly (especially if the procedure uses a multiple-choice technique) and reliably.
Arranging a cloze test in a multiple-choice format allows even more rapid scoring: hand scoring with an answer key or hole-punched grid, or computer scoring using scannable answer sheets.
Some variations on standard cloze testing have appeared over the years; two of the better known are the C-test and the cloze-elide procedure. In the C-test (Klein-Braley, & Raatz, 1984; Klein-Braley,: 1985; Darnyei & Katona, 1992), the second half (according to the number of letters) of every other word is obliterated, and the test-taker must restore each word.
Impromptu Reading Plus Comprehension Questions
If cloze testing is the most-researched procedure for assessing reading, the traditional "Read a passage and answer son1e questions" technique is undoubtedly the oldest and the most common. Virtually every proficiency test uses the format, and one would rarely consider assessing reading without some component of the assessment involving impromptu reading and responding to questions.
The questions represent a sample of the test specifications for TOEFL reading passages, which are derived from research on a variety of abilities good readers exhibit. Notice that many of them are consistent with strategies of effective reading: skimming for main idea, scanning for details, guessing word meanings from context, inferencing, using discourse markers, etc. To construct your own assessments that involve short reading passages followed by questions, you can begin with TOEFL-like specs as a basis.
Short-Answer Tasks
Multiple-choice items are difficult to construct and validate, and classroom teachers rarely have time in their busy schedules to design such a test. A popular alternative to multiple-choice questions following reading passages is the age-old short-answer format. A reading passage is presented, and the test-taker reads questions that must be answered in a sentence or two.
Editing (Longer Texts)
The previous section of this chapter (on selective reading) described editing tasks, put there the discussion was limited to a list of unrelated sentences, each presented with an error to be-detected by the test-taker.
First, authenticity is increased. The likelihood that students in English classrooms will read connected prose of a page or two is greater than the likelihood of their encountering the contrived format of unconnected sentences. Second, the task simulates proofreading one's own essay, where it is imperative to find and correct errors.
Scanning
Scanning is a strategy used by all readers to find relevant information in a text. Assessment of scanning is carried out by presenting test-takers with a text (prose or something in a chart or graph format) and requiring rapid identification of relevant bits of information. Possible stimuli include.
a one- to two-page news article,
an essay,
a chapter in a textbook,
a technical report,
a table or chart depicting some research findings,
a menu, and
an application form ..
Among the variety of scanning objectives (for each of the genres named above), the test-taker must locate.
a date, name, or place in an article;
the setting for a narrative or story;
the principal divisions of a chapter;
the principal research finding in a technical report;
a res1.I,lt reported in a specified cell in a table;
the cost of an item on a menu; and
specified data needed to fill out an application.
Scoring of such scanning tasks is amenable to specificity if the initial directions are specific ("How much does the dark chocolate torte cost?"). Since one of the purposes of scanning is to quickly identify important elements, timing may also be calculated into a scoring procedure.
Ordering Tasks
Students always enjoy the activity of receiving little strips of paper, each with a sentence on it, and assembling them into a story, sometimes called the "strip story" technique. Variations on this can serve an assessment of overall global understanding of a story and of the cohesive devices that signal the order of events or ideas.
Information Transfer: Reading Charts, Maps, Graphs, Diagrams
Every educated person must be able to comprehend charts, maps, graphs, calendars, diagrams, and the like. Converting such nonverbal input into comprehensible intake requires not only an understanding of the graphic and verbal conventions of the medium but also a linguistic ability to interpret that information to someone else. Reading a map implies understanding the conventions of map graphics, but it is often accompanied by telling someone where to turn, how far to go, etc.
All of these media presuppose the reader's appropriate schemata for interpreting them and often are accompanied by oral or written discourse in order to convey, clarify, question, argue, and debate, among other linguistic functions. Virtually every language curriculum, from rock-bottom beginning levels to high-advanced, utilizes this nonverbal, visual symbolic dimension.
This implies a process of information transfer from one skill to another: in this case, from reading verbal and/or nonverbal information to speaking/writing. Assessment of these abilities covers abroad spectrum of tasks.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: EXTENSIVE READING
Extensive reading involves somewhat longer texts than we have been dealing with up to this point. Journal articles, technical reports, longer essays, short stories, and books fall into this category. The reason for placing such reading into a separate category is that reading of this type of discourse almost always involves a focus on meaning using mostly top-down processing, with only occasional use of a targeted bottom-up strategy.
Before examining a few tasks that have proved to be useful in assessing extensive reading, it is essential to note that a number of the tasks described in previous categories can apply here. Among them are.
impromptu reading plus comprehension questions,
short-answer tasks,
editing,
scanning,
ordering,
information transfer, and
interpretation (discussed under graphics),
Skimming Tasks
Skimming is the process of rapid coverage of reading matter to determine its gist or main idea. It is a prediction strategy used to give a reader a sense of the topic and purpose of a text, the organization of the text, the perspective or point of view of the writer, its ease or difficulty, and/or its usefulness to the reader.
Summarizing and Responding
One of the most common means of assessing extensive reading is to ask the test-taker to write a summary of the text.
Note-Taking and Outlining
Finally, a reader's comprehension of extensive texts may be assessed through an evaluation of a process of note-taking and/or outlining. Because of the difficulty of controlling the conditions and time frame for both these techniques, they rest firmly in the category of informal assessment
ASSESSING WRITING
Not many centuries ago, writing was a skill that was the exclusive domain of scribes and scholars in educational or religious institutions. Almost every aspect of everyday life for "common" people was carried out orally. Business transactions, records, legal I documents, political and military agreements-all were written by specialists whose vocation it was to render language into the written word.
In the field of second language teaching, only a half-century ago experts were saying that writing was primarily a convention for recording speech and for reinforcing grammatical and lexical features of language.
With such a monumental goal, the job of teaching writing has occupied the attention of papers, articles, dissertations, books, and even separate professional journals exclusively devoted to writing in a second language.
GENRES OF WRITI'EN LANGUAGE
Chapter 8's discussion of assessment of reading listed more than 50 written language genres. The same classification scheme is reformulated here to include the most common genres that a second language writer might produce, within and beyond the requirements of a curriculum.
TYPES OF WRITING PERFORMANCE
Four categories of written performance that capture the range of written production are considered here. Each category resembles the categories defined for the other three skills, but these categories, as always, reflect the uniqueness of the skill area.
Imitative. To produce written language, the learner must attain skills in the fundamental, basic tasks of writing letters, words, punctuation, and very brief sentences.
Intensive (controlled). Beyond the fundamentals of imitative writing are skills in producing appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocations and idioms, and correct grammatical features up to the length of a: sentence
Responsive. Here, assessment tasks require learners to perform at a limited discourse level, connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating a logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs.
Extensive. Extensive writing implies successful management of all the processes and strategies of writing for all purposes, up to the length of an essay, a term paper, a major research project report, or even a thesis.
MICRO- AND MACROSKILLS OF WRITING
We tum once again to a taxonomy of micro and macro skills that will assist you in defining the ultimate criterion of an assessment procedure.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: IMITATIVE WRITING
With the recent worldwide emphasis on teaching English at young ages, it is tempting to assume that every English learner knows how to handwrite the Roman alphabet. Such is not the case. Many beginning-level English learners, from young children to older adults, need basic training in and assessment of imitative writing: the rudiments of forming letters, words, and simple sentences. We examine this level of writing first.
Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation
First, a comment should be made on the increasing use of personal and laptop computers and handheld instruments for creating written symbols. Handwriting has the potential of becoming a lost art as even very young children are more and more likely to use a keyboard to produce writing.
A few of the more common types are described here:'
Copying. There is nothing innovative or modern about directing a test-taker to copy letters or words.
Listening cloze selection tasks. These tasks combine dictation with a written script that has a relatively frequent deletion ratio (every fourth or fifth word, perhaps).
Picture-cued tasks. Familiar pictures are displayed, and test-takers are told to write the word that the picture represents.
Form completion tasks. A variation on pictures is the use of a simple form (registration, application, etc.)
Converting numbers and abbreviations to words. Some tests have a section on which numbers are written-for example hours of the day, dates, or schedules and test-takers are directed to write out the numbers.
Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences
A number of task types are in popular use to assess the ability to spell words correctly and to process phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
Spelling tests. In a traditional, old-fashioned spelling test, the teacher dictates a simple list of words, one word at a time followed by the word in a sentence, repeated again, with a pause for test-takers to write the word.
Picture-cued tasks. Pictures are displayed with the objective of focusing on familiar words whose spelling may be unpredictable.
Multiple-choice techniques. Presenting words and phrases in the form of a multiple-choice task risks crossing over into the domain of assessing reading, but if the items have a follow-up writing component, they can serve as formative reinforcement of spelling conventions.
Matching phonetic symbols. If students have become familiar with the phonetic alphabet, they could be shown phonetic symbols and asked to write· the correctly spelled word alphabetically.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE (CONTROLLED) WRITING
This next level of writing is what second language teacher training n1anuals have for decades called controlled writing. It may also be thought of as_ form-focused writing, grammar writing, or simply guided writing. A good deal of writing at this level is display writing as opposed to real writing: students produce language to display their competence in grammar, vocabulary, or sentence formation, and not necessarily to convey meaning for an authentic purpose. The traditional grammar/vocabulary test has plenty of display writing in it, since the response mode demonstrates only the test-taker's ability to con1bine or use words correctly. No new information is passed on from one person to the other.
Dictation and Dicto-Comp
Because of its response mode, however, it deserves a second mention in this chapter. Dictation is simply the rendition in writing of what one hears aurally, so it could be classified as an imitative type of writing, especially since a proportion of the test-taker's performance centers on correct spelling.
A form of controlled writing related to dictation is a dicto-comp. Here, a paragraph is read at normal speed, usually two or three times then the teacher asks students to rewrite the paragraph from the best of their recollection
Grammatical Transformation Tasks
In the heyday of structural paradigms of language teaching with slot-filler techniques and slot substitution drills, the practice of making grammatical transformations orally or in writing-was very popular. To this day, language teachers have also used this technique as an assessment task, ostensibly to measure grammatical competence. Numerous versions of the task are possible:
Change the tenses in a paragraph.
Change full forms of verbs to reduced forms (contractions).
Change statements to yes/no or wb-questions.
Change questions into statements.
Combine two sentences into one using a relative pronoun.
Change direct speech to indirect speech.
Change from active to passive voice.
The list of possibilities is almost endless. The tasks are virtually devoid of any meaningful value. Sometimes test designers attempt to add authenticity by providing a context ("Today Doug is doing all these things.
Vocabulary Assessment Tasks
Most vocabulary study is carried out through reading. A number of assessments of reading recognition of vocabulary were discussed in the previous chapter: multiple-choice techniques, matching, picture-cued identification, cloze techniques, guessing the meaning of a word in context, etc.
Vocabulary assessment is clearly form-focused in the above tasks, but the procedures are creatively linked by means of the target word, its collocations, and its morphological variants.
Ordering Tasks
One task at the sentence level may appeal to those who are fond of word games and puzzles: ordering (or reordering) a scrambled set of words into a correct sentence.
Short-Answer and Sentence Completion Tasks
Some types of short-answer tasks were discussed in Chapter 8 because of the heavy participation of reading performance in their completion. Such items range from very simple and predictable to somewhat more elaborate responses.
ISSUES IN ASSESSING RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING
Responsive writing creates the opportunity: tor test-takers to offer an array of 'possible creative responses within a pedagogic or assessment framework: test-takers are "responding" to a prompt or assignment.
Extensive, or "free," writing, which is amalgamated into our discussion here, takes all the principles and guidelines of responsive writing and puts them into practice in longer texts such as full-length essays, term papers, project reports, and theses and dissertations. In extensive writing, however, the writer has been given even more freedom to choose: topics, length, style, and perhaps even conventions of formatting are less constrained than in the typical responsive writing exercise.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING
In this section we consider both responsive and extensive writing tasks. They will -be regarded here as a continuum of possibilities ranging from lower-end tasks whose complexity exceeds those in the previous category of intensive or controlled writing, through more open-ended tasks such as writing short reports, essays, summaries, and responses up to texts of several pages or more.
Paraphrasing
One of the more difficult concepts for second language learners to grasp is paraphrasing. With those possible motivations and purposes in mind, the test designer needs to elicit a paraphrase of a sentence or paragraph, usually not more.
Guided Question and Answer
Another lower-order task in this type of writing, which has the pedagogical benefit of guiding a learner without dictating the form of the output, is a guided question and-answer format in which the test administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline of the emergent written text.
Paragraph Construction Tasks
The participation of reading performance is inevitable in writing effective paragraphs. To a great extent, writing is the art of emulating what one read. You read an effective paragraph; you analyze the ingredients of its success; you emulate it.
Strategic Options
Developing main and supporting ideas is the goal for the writer attempting to create an effective text, whether a short one- to two-paragraph one or an extensive one of several pages. A number .of strategies are commonly taught to second language writers to accomplish their purposes.
TEST OF WRITTEN ENGLISH (TWE®)
One of a number of internationally available standardized tests of writing ability is the Test o/Written English (TWE. Established in 1986, the ~ has gained a reputation as a well-respected measure of written English, and a number of research articles support its validity (Frase et al., 1999; Hale et al., 1996; Long ford, 1996; My ford et al. 1996). In 1998, a computer-delivered version of the 1WE was incorporated into the standard computer-based TOEFL and simply labeled as the "writing" section of the TOEFL. The 1WE is still offered as a separate test especially where only the paper based TOEFL is available
SCORING METHODS FOR RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING
At responsive and extensive levels of writing, three major approaches to scoring writing performance are commonly used by test designers: holistic, primary trait, and analytical In the first method, a single score is assigned to an essay, which represents a reader's general overall assessment. Primary trait scoring is a variation of the holistic method in that the achievement of the primary purpose, or trait, of an essay is the only factor rated. Analytical scoring breaks a test-taker's written text down into a number of subcategories (organization, grammar, etc.) and gives a separate rating for each.
Primary Trait Scoring
A second method of scoring, primary trait, focuses on "how well students can write within a narrowly defined range of discourse" (Weigle, 2002, p. 110).This type of scoring en1phasizes the task at hand and assigns a score based on the effectiveness of the text's achieving that one goal. For example, if the purpose or function of an essay is to persuade the reader to do something, the score for the writing would rise or fall on the accomplishment of that function.
Analytic Scoring
For classroom instruction, holistic scoring provides little washback into the writer's further stages of learning. Primary trait scoring focuses on the principal function of the text and therefore offers some feedback potential, but no washback for any of the aspects of the written production that enhance the ultimate accomplishment of the purpose.
Analytic scoring of compositions offers writers a little more washback than a single holistic or primary trait score. Scores in five or six major elements will help to call the writers' attention to areas of needed improvement.
BEYOND SCORING: RESPONDING TO EXTENSIVE WRITING
Formal testing carries with it the burden of designing a practical and reliable instrument that assesses its intended criterion accurately. To accomplish that mission, designers of writing tests are charged with the task of providing as "objective" a scoring procedure as possible, and one that in many cases can be easily interpreted by agents beyond the learner. Holistic primary trait, and analytic scoring all satisfy those end. Yet beyond mathematically calculated scores lies a rich domain of assessment in which a developing writer is coached from stage to stage in a process of building a storehouse of writing skills.
Assessment takes on a crucial role in such an approach. Learning how to become a good writer places the student in an almost constant stage of assessment.
Assessing Initial Stages of the Process of Composing
Following are some guidelines for assessing the initial stages (the first draft or two) of a written composition.
Assessing Later Stages of the Process of Composing
Once the writer has determined and clarified his or her purpose and plan, and has completed at least one or perhaps two drafts, the focus shifts toward "time tuning" the expression with a view toward a final revision.
REFERENCE
Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment Principles and classroom practices. New York
Weigle, Sara Cushing. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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