خلاصة:
The present study intended to evaluate EFL students' performance on a traditional method of writing assessment in comparison to an alternative assessment technique by taking into account the effects of teacher and peer feedback. Moreover, the attitudes of the participants regarding assessment procedures and activities were focused in this study. To this end, thirty male and female language learners taking Advanced Writing course at university level were chosen as the participants of the study. First, all the participants were given a traditional writing test. Then, they were provided with a video and a reading passage related to the writing topic. Additionally, they received teacher and peer comments and feedback on their essays. As a further step, a questionnaire was distributed to collect information about the participants’ opinions on the provided treatments. Analysis of the results indicated that in general most EFL learners had a better performance in alternative assessment mainly on the components of content, organization and style in comparison to traditional one. Also, the participants showed a positive attitude in general about alternative assessment through teacher and peer feedback, chiefly towards teacher comments.
ملخص الجهاز:
com Abstract The present study intended to evaluate EFL students' performance on a traditional method of writing assessment in comparison to an alternative assessment technique by taking into account the effects of teacher and peer feedback.
Background of the study Defining the skill that is intended to be assessed is a critical starting point in designing a test, and the definition of writing ability for a particular context depends in large measure on such considerations as the particular group of second/foreign- language writers and the kind of task that these learners are probably to involve in (Weigle, 2002).
Theory suggests that writing in general is a cognitively demanding task, and that improving written texts always require topical knowledge, reflection, feedback, revisions and, naturally, extended time to make them, which the traditional essay test does not allow.
Since the purpose of the study was to make a comparison between the same students’ first and final drafts to detect any change in the quality of written texts (essays) as a result of administering the new assessment method, the participants all took a TOEFL test so that a homogeneous group including 30 participants was finally selected.
The Results of Matched-Paired T-test for Comparing Traditional and Alternative {مراجعه شود به فایل جدول الحاقی} The results of the analysis of the subcomponents of the writing skill including content, organization, grammar, style and mechanics for two types of assessments are given in the following tables.