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Testing Writing: Prepared by Sabariah MD Rashid

The document discusses testing writing skills and approaches. It notes that writing includes complex skills like grammar, rhetoric, and judgment. There are two common test approaches: indirect tests of underlying writing abilities and direct tests that require students to perform writing tasks. Direct tests aim to elicit representative writing samples but face challenges in selecting tasks, scoring reliability, and restricting outside help. The document also provides suggestions to improve direct writing tests, such as using multiple tasks and ensuring lengthy, on-topic writing samples.

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Mohd Shaffizi Asaari
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80 views

Testing Writing: Prepared by Sabariah MD Rashid

The document discusses testing writing skills and approaches. It notes that writing includes complex skills like grammar, rhetoric, and judgment. There are two common test approaches: indirect tests of underlying writing abilities and direct tests that require students to perform writing tasks. Direct tests aim to elicit representative writing samples but face challenges in selecting tasks, scoring reliability, and restricting outside help. The document also provides suggestions to improve direct writing tests, such as using multiple tasks and ensuring lengthy, on-topic writing samples.

Uploaded by

Mohd Shaffizi Asaari
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TESTING WRITING

Prepared by Sabariah Md Rashid

The Nature of Writing - Writing skills: complex and difficult to master


- Includes mastery of grammatical skills, rhetorical devices and conceptual / judgmental elements - different types of writing task require different skills

5 general components of what entails good

Language use ~ W correct/appropriate sts. Mechanical skills ~ correct conventions of W language Treatment of content ~ think creatively /dev. thoughts Stylistic skills ~ manipulate sets/paragraphs Judgmental skills ~ appropriacy of W - audience/purpose - correct registers

2 common approaches in testing writing


1. Indirect test of writing

2. Direct test of writing

Indirect writing test


~ testing the underlying skills of ability made up of discrete levels, e.g., error recognition
~ using multiple-choice items ~ TOEFL incorporated these items before the early 80s

Direct test of writing


~ getting students to write/perform task
~ e.g. TWE (Test of Written English),

which is a supplement to TOEFL

Problems in Testing Directly


Need to set tasks which are properly

representative of pop and tasks that students are expected to be able to perform

Tasks: to elicit samples of writing, which

truly presents the writing ability of a student

Scoring of writing samples reliably

What different types of writing task are students expected to be able to perform?
Examples: - writing stories (narrative) - summary - reports - letters (informal vs. formal) - descriptions (descriptive) - presenting opinions (expository) - argumentative

In class ~ teachers need to teach students the specified writing tasks & the micro-skills Micro-skills - accuracy - cohesion & coherence - mechanics

How to obtain samples which represent each candidates writing ability?


i. Set as many tasks as are feasible: ~ validity: ideally, should include all the relevant potential tasks ~ total score best estimate of a candidates performance of the test ability ~ all scores on different writing tasks = ones performance on the same task some people are better at some tasks than others

However, need to balance this against practicality ii. Test only writing ability and nothing else ~ need to be aware of not testing wide general knowledge reading composition, etc. ~ instructions: clear/not too long iii. Restrict candidates ~ provide information that is required of the writing task

How to enhance reliability?


Include as many tasks as possible Restrict candidates Do not give choice of tasks Ensure samples which are sufficiently long

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