In EFL programs, rating scales used in writing assessment are often constructed by intuition. Intuition-based scales tend to provide inaccurate and divisive ratings of learners’ writing performance. Hence, following an empirical approach, this study attempted to develop a rating scale for elementary-level writing at an EFL program in Saudi Arabia. Towards this goal, 98 students’ essays were sco...

Various computer tools have been developed to support educators’ assessment of student writing, including automated essay scoring and automated writing evaluation systems. Research demonstrates that these systems exhibit relatively high scoring accuracy but uncertain instructional efficacy. Students’ writing proficiency does not necessarily improve as a result of interacting with the software. ...

Patients at a comprehensive cancer center have participated in a weekly writing program for 7 years. Anecdotal evidence following writing in this clinical setting appeared congruent with the results of expressive writing studies conducted in laboratory settings. To move expressive writing research beyond the laboratory, we evaluated the feasibility of engaging a clinical population in a structu...

in the present study, an attempt is made to investigate the frequency and motives of using avoidance strategies by a group of iranian intermediate language learners through their own journal writing. the effect of gender on the use of avoidance strategies is to be investigated as well. thirty nine female and twenty three male learners enrolled in an english language spoken course in a private e...

This study aimed at investigating the potential of collaborative and e-collaborative writing modalities in developing interactional complexity, utilization of interactional demonstrators and density of interaction. To this end, 66 Iranian intermediate female English as foreign language learners (EFL) were selected to participate in this study according to their scores on Oxford Placement Test (...