Description
Book SynopsisThis book tackles three choices that face developers of L2 writing assessments: defining L2 writing abilities; collecting evidence of those abilities (usually by getting L2 writers to write something); and judging their performance (usually by assigning a score or grade to it). It takes a historical view of how assessment developers have made those choices, how contemporary practices emerged, and of alternative techniques that have risen and fallen over time.
The three sections each tackle one of these choices. The first considers the social functions that define L2 writing and assessment; the second relates how assessment tasks have adapted to changing conceptions of languages, writing, and assessment; and the third explores how scoring systems have evolved. Each section brings the reader up to date with current issues confronting writing assessment (both in large-scale testing and in language classrooms) before considering the new opportunities and challenges of the digital age. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners in language assessment, language education, and applied linguistics.
Trade Review“L2 Writing Assessment: An Evolutionary Perspective written by Anthony Green provides an in-depth look at L2 writing assessment from a critical angle which has been under-investigated to date. … Language assessment provides valuable feedback to both teachers and students about their progress and areas for improvement, which is an essential part of language learning. … This book, L2 Writing Assessment: An Evolutionary Perspective, deserves a recommendation for its compelling content.” (Hassan Mohebbi and Eunjeong Park, Assessing Writing, Vol. 57, July, 2023)
Table of ContentsPart I: Getting started with L2 writing
Chapter 1: Introduction
Part II: Getting writers to write
Chapter 2: Public education, rhetoric, and examinations
Chapter 3 :The dawn of the language test
Chapter 4: Assessment trends and the revival of writing
Chapter 5: Shifting views of L2 writing
Part III: Judging language learners’ writing
Chapter 6: Compelling consensus: from mark schemes to the scaling of samples
Chapter 7: Rating scales and beyond
Chapter 8: Directions in L2 writing assessment
