Research On The Scoring Method For Calssroom-Based EFL Writing At Collegiate Level

This research is concerned with scoring methods for classroom-based EFL writing at collegiate level. The major research objective of this study is to find out 1)how college teachers of English are scoring their students'compositions, 2)what is the scoring method that can best assess students'EFL writing ability which, to a large extent, reflects their English language ability, and 3)how the assessment results can be used for diagnostic purposes to improve EFL teaching and learning.The research is done in the context of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) education. In other words, the theories reviewed and applied in this research are mainly concerned with EFL writing as well as writing in general. By"classroom-based""collegiate-level"writing, it is meant that the writing or compositions mentioned in this research refer to writing assignments related to what is learned in class at the collegiate level and to be completed either in the classroom or at home. The literature review of this paper, which serves as underpinnings for the research, touches upon such areas as the nature of writing, writing assessment, scoring methods, rating scales and backwash effect.The main findings of this research are as follows:1. The data collected in this study show that most of the college teachers of English, influenced by the scoring method for the writing section of College English Test Band-4/6 (CET-4/6), are using the global impression method to score students'in-class compositions. This thesis argues, however, that this method is not proper because the global impression method is more suitable for large-scale testing compositions like CET-4/6 than classroom-based compositions, which aim to develop students'writing ability step by step.2. Based on the literature review and empirical experience, the thesis concludes that the analytical scoring method is ideal for classroom-based compositions. The scores resulting from this method not only reflect separately different aspects of writing ability such as content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, writing skills, etc, but also indicate what is encouraged and how much effort is needed in which area of writing performance.