خلاصة:
Researchers and scholars have been attracted by the idea of using integrated writing task along with independent writing task to best assess the EFL learners’ writing competence. This study was conducted to compare the writing performance of EFL students in integrated and independent writing tasks. It also aimed to find out if writing performance varies with task types. A number of thirty Iranian EFL students participated in this study, and each student wrote on two writing tasks of IELTS Academic module. The written essays were rated by three experienced raters using IELTS rubrics. Paired sample t-tests revealed that test takers performances did not differ significantly across these two tasks. Besides, two one-way ANOVAs indicated the difference between the raters in rating integrated writing task while they were not performed differently in rating independent task. The results are followed by a number of suggestions with the aim of improving the EFL students’ performance in writing skill.
ملخص الجهاز:
By the introduction of the direct writing tasks (Hamp-Lyons, 1991) and the emergence of the standardized tests including TOEFL and IELTS for admission or placement decisions in universities, researchers focused on assessing the academic writing abilities of university students (Cho, Rijmen, & Novak, 2013; Read & Hayes, 2003).
Researchers declare that integrated tasks like the actual practices in academic contexts require discourse synthesis which is a common exercise in university writing (Gebril, 2009; Horowitz, 1986; Moore & Morton, 1999; Plakans, 2008, 2009).
Source-dependent tasks were firstly suggested by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to the administrators of the Test of English as a Foreign Language with the aim of measuring writing ability more accurately (Plakans & Gebril, 2013; Weigle & Parker, 2012).
For instance, Golder, Reeder, and Fleming (2011) determined the appropriate band scores for admission into programs while Moore and Morton (2005) compared IELTS writing tasks with the university writing and rater variation in scoring was investigated by Lee and Kantor (2005).
Other researchers worked on examining IELTS as an indicator of written proficiency levels (Ellis, Chong, & Choy, 2013), elaborating on IELTS gain scores (Elder, & O’Loughlin, 2003; Read & Hayes, 2003), and studying the washback effect of IELTS and the impact of preparation programs on candidates’ performance (Green, 2007).
In comparative studies, different results were reported; Jennings, Fox, Graves, and Shohamy (1999) and Weigle (1999) reported higher and more consistent marks in independent tasks, while Grabe (2001) and Spack (1993) concluded that raters assigned higher scores to integrated writing tasks.