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Ricardo Gamboa
Gina Cauich
Roberto Buenfil
Patricia Medina
Jessica Argüelles
ELICIT A VALID SAMPLE OF WRITING ABILITY
1 Set as many separate tasks as is practical
Compare and contrast the three bees. Write about three - quarters of a
page.
A series of pictures can be used to elicit a narrative.
Writing tasks should be well defined: candidates should know just what
is required of them, and they should not be allowed to go far astray.
a) Arabic b) English
1. Easier for students 1. Books and Scientific sources
2. Easieer for most teachers mostly in English.
3. Saves a year in most cases 2. English international language.
3. Learning second language part of
education and culture.
Tasks should not only fit well with the specifications, but they should
also be made as authentic as posible.
-Set as many tasks as possible: the more scores for each candidate,
the more reliable should be the total score.
RESTRICT CANDIDATES:
The greater the restrictions imposed on the candidates, the more
directly comparable will be the performances of different candidates.
Positive features
It is faster to read a script once and assign a single score than to
read it several times, each time focusing on a different aspect of the
writing.
It is less expensive.
It is intended to focus the reader’s attention on the strengths of the
writing not on its deficiencies, so writers are rewarded for what
they do well.
It is more valid than analytic scoring methods, because it reflects
most closely the authentic, personal reaction of a reader to a text.
DISADVANTAGES
A single score does not provide useful diagnostic information
about a person’s writing ability
It does not allow rates to distinguish between various aspects of
writing such as control syntax, depth of vocabulary,
organization and so on.
This is problematic for second-language writers: some have
excellent writing skills in terms of content and organization but
may have much lower grammatical control. Others may have
excellent grammar but may not know how to organize their
writing in a logical way.
Holistic scores are not always easy to interpret because rates not
use the same criteria: a certain script might be given a 4 because
of its rhetorical features (content, organization, development)
while another rate might give the same 4 because of its linguistic
features (grammar and vocabulary).
Superficial characteristics such as length and handwriting seem
to interfere in the score.
EXAMPLE TOEFL WRITING SCORING GUIDE
ANALYTIC SCORING
Scripts are rated on several aspects of writing or criteria rather
than given a single score. Depending on the purpose of the
assessment, scripts might be rated on such features as content,
organization, cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar, or
mechanics.
Punctuation
According to Jacobs et al (1981) scripts are rated on 5 aspects of
writing; content (30 points), organization and vocabulary (20 points),
language use (25 points), and mechanics (5 points).
ADVANTAGES
It provides more useful about diagnostic information.
More useful in rater training, as inexperienced raters can
more easily understand and apply the criteria in separate
scales than in holistic scales.
-Picture-cued tasks: Pictures are displayed and the test-takers are told
(hours of the day, dates or schedules) and the test-takers are directed to
-Spelling tests: The teacher dictates a simple list of words, one at a time
followed by the word used in a sentence.
-Picture-cued tasks: Displaying pictures with the objective of focusing on
familiar words whose spelling may be unpredictable or word pairs.
-Multiple-choice techniques: Presenting words and phrases in the form of
a multiple-choice task (they choose the word with the correct spelling
among the options)
-Matching phonetic symbols: Test takers are shown phonetic symbols
and asked to write the correct word alphabetically.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE (CONTROLLED)
WRITING
ORDERING TASKS:
Ordering or reordering a scrambled set of words into a correct
sentence. Generates writing performance and may tap
grammatical word-ordering rules.
SHORT-ANSWER AND SENTENCE COMPLETION TASKS