Study On User Factors In The Application Of Intelligent Essay Scoring Systems In English Writing Teaching

Recently,Intelligent Essay Scoring Systems,owing to their instant scoring and detailed feedback,have been widely employed in universities and colleges to reduce the workload of teachers in writing-scoring.Scholars at home and abroad have researched its reliability,validity and classroom-based application,while few domestic studies investigate how teachers and students employ it in the process of writing-teaehing and how user factors affect its application.Considering its wide application,this study places emphasis on the process of teachers and learners' utilization of it,and focuses on user factors' effects on its employment,in order to explore more effective ways to take advantage of modern information technology to facilitate the teaching of English writing as well as many other aspects related to English learning.Based on the collection of data from the administrator of the system in Guangxi University and technical suppliers,and the adoption of questionnaire and interview as its instruments,this study attempts to investigate all the college English teachers and non-English-majored students' application of it in regards to the following questions:How do teachers use IESS to provide feedback on writing,to teach writing,and to develop learners' autonomy?How do learners use IESS to learn writing and to develop learning autonomy?How do user factors affect the application of IESS in their teaching and learning?Following are major findings of this study.1.Most teachers rely on the system to provide feedback on writing with few human ratings or no organization of peer evaluation online.In the process of writing-teaching,teachers hardly provide input on heuristic tasks and seldom encourage interaction among students on the system before writing,and few excellent peer writings except model writings are recommended after writing.With regard to the development of learners' autonomy,most teachers,except employing the system to score translations which are usually related with College English Test 4,seldom assign other types of writing tasks or provide students with assignments on vacations.In brief,teachers,to a great extent,merely take the system as a tool of easing their workload in writing-scoring with less attention to the maximization of its functions to facilitate the teaching of English writing.2.Students employ the system to finish regular essays and C-E translations assigned by their teachers,and make repeated revisions based on computer-generated feedback.However,the results indicate that students differ from each other greatly in frequencies of revision and that they have less participation in online peer evaluation.In addition,students seldom read shared writing materials or utilize the system to do self-exercises,which suggests students merely consider it as a tool of finishing teacher assignments and rarely take advantage of it to develop their autonomy.3.User factors affecting teachers and students' employment of the system include perceptions of its functions,conception and differences in feedback,process writing and learner autonomy,and attitudes towards information technology.Based on the questionnaire and interview,it is found that most of the surveyed teachers are unfamiliar with its functions and operation with their adherence to conservative teaching theories and their unwillingness to accept its application in writing-teaching.It is also indicated that students'perceptions of the system,degree of its utilization,and attitudes towards the application of information technology in writing-learning are related with teachers' instruction and guidance in a great degree.On the basis of major findings above,this study endeavors to provide following suggestions.Firstly,in terms of foreign language teachers'development,not only the study of teaching theories and the innovation of teaching conceptions should be given great attention,but also the learning of information technology should be included in the training and assessment of teachers' professional ability.Secondly,with the help of technical suppliers,updated messages concerning functions of information technology platform ought to be delivered to its users in time and relevant training should be organized at the same time.Thirdly,the teaching administrator is advised to follow users' application of the system,provide dominant users/teachers with feedback about students' needs,increase a certain degree of administrative pressure on teachers,strengthen their sense of responsibility in teaching,and ensure their effective instruction and guidance on students,in the hope of optimizing its effects on the facilitation and assistance of writing teaching and learning from the aspect of users.