Exploring the essay rating judgements of english instructors in the Middle East
The Assessment of L2 Written English across the MENA Region: A Synthesis of Practice, Springer International Publishing Ag, ss.113-141, 2020
- Yayın Türü: Kitapta Bölüm / Araştırma Kitabı
- Basım Tarihi: 2020
- Doi Numarası: 10.1007/978-3-030-53254-3_6
- Yayınevi: Springer International Publishing Ag
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.113-141
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Iraqi kurdistan, Rater variability, Turkey, Writing assessment
- TED Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
English writing is becoming increasingly crucial to university students' academic success internationally. However, essay rating is subject to variability between raters (Cumming, Kantor, & Powers, 2002). Current research suggests that factors such as raters' backgrounds and local assessment policies and practices complicate the essay rating experience in Middle East (ME) contexts (Latif & Haridy, 2018). This study serves as an exploratory analysis to describe the rating behaviours of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in the ME. We focused on two contexts: English-medium universities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and Turkey. We recruited five native-English-speaking (NES) teachers from each context to participate in the study. We collected data via think-aloud-protocols (TAP) of participants rating sample essays and semi-structured interviews that covered their professional backgrounds and experiences. Findings point to commonalities across contexts, such as evaluating the connections between rubric criteria but several group-specific factors also emerged including attention being paid to different rubric criteria. Findings may help build a more comprehensive understanding of scoring decisions as a function of raters' context and experiences in these settings.