Assessing Writing最新文献

{"title":"Unacclimatized?: Understanding the potential of labor-based contract grading interventions in Chinese EFL writing contexts","authors":"Chenggang Liang ,&nbsp;Shulin Yu ,&nbsp;Nan Zhou ,&nbsp;Feng Geng","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100993","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100993","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the exuberant scholarly discussions on labor-based contract grading as an alternative to traditional high-stakes writing assessment, few empirical studies have explored its effects on students’ writing outcomes, especially in L2 writing contexts. Set against the context of EFL writing classes at a Chinese university, the study examined the effectiveness of the labor-based contract grading intervention on both academic and affective outcomes in L2 writing over one semester. Data were collected from 160 students (72 in the control group and 88 in the experimental group; <em>M</em>_<em>age</em> = 18.60, <em>SD</em> =.68, 48.13 % female) before and after the intervention. Results of repeated measures MANOVA revealed significant differences in students’ writing academic outcomes between two groups. Specifically, the labor-based contract grading group showed less improvement in L2 writing performance as compared to the traditional high-stakes writing assessment. Moreover, no significant differences were observed in students’ affective writing outcomes across two groups. The findings highlight the importance of considering contextual factors when implementing labor-based contract grading in diverse writing contexts. Relevant implications and directions for future research are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 100993"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unveiling the antecedents of feedback-seeking behavior in L2 writing: The impact of future L2 writing selves and emotions","authors":"Jia Li ,&nbsp;Lawrence Jun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While existing research on second or foreign (L2) feedback has predominantly focused on the effectiveness of various feedback practices and their impacts on writing performance, limited attention has been devoted to learners’ proactive role in seeking feedback, and how this important yet underexplored construct correlates with conative and affective variables remains insufficiently examined. To help fill that void, we sought to explore the concept of feedback-seeking behavior and its antecedents in L2 writing by examining the correlations with future L2 writing selves and emotions, particularly unpacking the mediating effect of emotions in the emotion-driven chain of “motivation→emotion→increased or decreased behavior” among 225 undergraduate English major students. Structural equation modeling unveiled that ideal and ought-to L2 writing selves directly and significantly influenced emotions, and emotions impacted the two dimensions of feedback-seeking behavior significantly. More importantly, ideal L2 writing self indirectly influenced feedback monitoring and feedback inquiry through the mediation of writing enjoyment. Nevertheless, writing boredom exercised no significant mediating effect on future L2 selves and feedback-seeking behavior. These findings reinforced the learner-centered perspective that positions students as proactive agents and provide some notable implications for L2 writing instruction to advance our understanding of teacher feedback.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101009"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145789943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the page: A multimodal self-efficacy framework for assessing L2 digital-academic writing","authors":"Ke Li ,&nbsp;Ying Hong ,&nbsp;Chen Hao","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As academic writing becomes increasingly digital and multimodal, traditional assessments of L2 writing self-efficacy—centered exclusively on print-based, monomodal tasks—inadequately represent learners' confidence in contemporary composition practices. While existing self-efficacy instruments have advanced our understanding of writing beliefs, including recent multidimensional scales and emerging work on multimodal processes, no validated tool specifically measures L2 writers' perceived efficacy in performing integrated multimodal academic writing tasks. This gap is particularly consequential as EAP assessments increasingly require students to synthesize audio, visual, and textual sources within digitally mediated writing environments—demands that extend beyond the constructs captured by existing scales. This study introduces and validates the Multimodal Academic Writing Self-Efficacy Scale (MAWSE), designed to assess L2 writers' beliefs about their capabilities in four theoretically distinct dimensions: digital content comprehension (interpreting multimodal sources), multimodal discourse synthesis (integrating cross-modal information), genre and format navigation (adapting to multimodal conventions), and self-regulation across digital platforms (managing multimodal composing processes). Using a sequential mixed-methods design, we gathered data from 1063 EFL university students across three institutional contexts in China. Qualitative think-aloud protocols informed item development, while exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses established construct validity. Multi-group invariance testing confirmed measurement equivalence across key and non-key university groups, and structural equation modeling revealed that MAWSE scores significantly predicted performance on scenario-based academic writing tasks involving integrated multimodal sources (β = 0.41, p &lt; .01). The findings offer a psychometrically robust, construct-relevant tool that extends existing self-efficacy frameworks into the multimodal domain, addressing an empirical gap while supporting more accurate and equitable assessment practices in digitally enriched EAP contexts. This research contributes to evolving scholarship by validating an instrument aligned with the realities of contemporary academic communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101010"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145736764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is it beneficial to strive for perfection in writing?: Exploring the relationship between perfectionism, motivational regulation, and second language (L2) writing performance","authors":"Li Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.101012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Perfectionism, a personality trait characterized by the pursuit of flawlessness and high personal standards, and motivational regulation, the strategies through which individuals manage their motivational states, have received limited attention in second language (L2) writing. Framed within social cognitive theory, this study examines how two dimensions of perfectionism—perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns—relate to writing performance (syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency) and how motivational regulation sub-strategies (interest enhancement, self-talk, and emotional control) mediate these relationships. Data from 689 university students in China were analyzed using questionnaires and argumentative writing samples. Results indicated that perfectionistic strivings positively predicted syntactic complexity, accuracy, and lexical complexity, while perfectionistic concerns negatively predicted these dimensions; neither dimension significantly affected fluency. Crucially, motivational regulation sub-strategies partially mediated the relations between perfectionism and writing performance. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing perfectionism dimensions and targeting motivational regulation strategies to improve L2 writing. Implications for instruction and directions for future longitudinal research are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101012"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of task repetition schedules and emotions on L2 writing performance profiles using latent transition analysis","authors":"Mahmoud Abdi Tabari ,&nbsp;Hansol Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100974","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100974","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study employed Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to identify distinct L2 writing performance profiles based on CALF measures (Syntactic Complexity, Accuracy, Lexical Complexity, and Fluency) and to examine the influence of emotional states under varying task repetition schedules. Participants included 270 ESL undergraduates in a U.S. university writing course, and they were randomly assigned to long-spaced, short-spaced, or massed repetition schedules. Each completed a persuasive writing task, followed by a questionnaire measuring anxiety and enjoyment. Results indicated that learners initially displayed similar performance levels but ultimately formed two profiles: Lower Performance and Higher Performance. Those in the long-spaced group were more likely to belong to the Higher Performance Profile, characterized by higher CALF measures, particularly in syntactic complexity, accuracy, and lexical complexity. Among the predictors—three types of task repetition schedules (long-spaced, short-spaced, and massed repetitions) and two task-related emotions (enjoyment and anxiety)—perceived enjoyment emerged as the strongest predictor of being classified into the Higher Performance Profile. These findings emphasize the importance of utilizing a person-centered approach to explore individual differences in L2 writing trajectories and suggest that carefully designed task repetition schedules and attention to emotional states can enhance writing performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100974"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144724442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can generative AI figure out figurative language? The influence of idioms on essay scoring by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Deepseek","authors":"Enis Oğuz","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100981","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100981","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The developments in Generative AI technologies have paved the way for numerous innovations in different fields. Recently, Generative AI has been proposed as a competitor to AES systems in evaluating student essays. Considering the potential limitations of AI in processing idioms, this study assessed the scoring performances of Generative AI models for essays with and without idioms by incorporating insights from Corpus Linguistics and Computational Linguistics. Two equal essay lists were created from 348 student essays taken from a corpus: one with multiple idioms present in each essay and another with no idioms. Three Generative AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Deepseek) were asked to score all essays in both lists three times, using the same rubric used by human raters. The results revealed excellent consistency for all models without any detectable bias for any demographic group, but Gemini outperformed its competitors in interrater reliability with human raters. For essays with idioms, Gemini followed the most similar pattern to human raters. While models in the study demonstrated capability for a hybrid approach in formative assessments, Gemini was the best candidate due to its ability to handle figurative language and its potential for handling essay-scoring tasks in high-stakes exams in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100981"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating move analysis and sentence reconstruction in automated writing evaluation for L2 academic writers","authors":"Bo-Ren Mau ,&nbsp;Hui-Hsien Feng","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100984","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100984","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Artificial intelligence has been widely utilized to assist L2 writers through automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems, which offer grammatical feedback. However, for English academic writing, such feedback is apparently insufficient to address the complexities of academic discourse. While genre-based AWE systems employ move analysis, they offer move detections as corrective feedback (CF) without addressing language use issues and are developed using limited datasets. Additionally, general-purpose large language models (LLMs; e.g., ChatGPT) may lack specialized mechanisms for accurately identifying rhetorical moves and providing genre-specific feedback in academic writing contexts. To address these limitations, this study proposes GURUS, a genre-based AWE system grounded in second language acquisition theories. It provides indirect CF by classifying moves with probabilistic scores, and direct CF through sentence reconstruction. GURUS is implemented as a web-based application using ensemble learning model and transformer-based LLMs. By offering indirect and direct CF, GURUS promotes learner-machine interaction, prompting learners to notice discrepancies between their writing and the reconstructed sentences. GURUS was trained on over one million sentences with OMRC moves. Its classification performance was assessed using <em>F1</em>-score and Brier score; furthermore, semantic and rhetorical production were evaluated using BERTscore and human assessment. The results show that GURUS sufficiently classifies sentence moves and reconstructs sentences while retaining semantic integrity. Given GURUS holds promise in academic writing instruction, this study also discusses its implementation to bolster learners’ genre awareness and proficiency in move-based abstract writing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100984"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145264745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lexical richness in young English learners’ writing: A focus on opinion and listen-write task types","authors":"Hakyung Sung ,&nbsp;Mikyung Kim Wolf ,&nbsp;Michael Suhan ,&nbsp;Kristopher Kyle","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ample research has examined the linguistic characteristics of second language (L2) writing across proficiency scores, with a focus on lexical diversity, sophistication, and density as key dimensions of lexical richness. However, the applicability of these indices to young L2 learners’ writings, often characterized by limited vocabulary and constrained output in standardized writing tasks, remained underexplored. To address this gap, this study analyzed the lexical richness of young L2 learners’ written productions from two TOEFL Junior Writing tasks (Opinion and Listen-Write tasks), using 37 tailored indices of lexical diversity, sophistication, and density. The results indicated that the lexical characteristics of young L2 learners vary by task score and task type, particularly when assessed through indices such as lexical diversity (e.g., moving-average type-token ratio) and sophistication (e.g., n-gram strength of association). Nonetheless, incorporating additional measures, such as syntactic complexity or discourse features, may be essential for distinguishing young L2 learners at higher proficiency levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100975"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144781790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the critical thinking experiences of L2 student writers engaged in linguistically supported peer feedback giving","authors":"Xiaodong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100977","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100977","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research has examined second-language (L2) student writers’ peer feedback giving (PFG) and the impact that PFG has on students’ critical thinking, namely their critical engagement with writing content. However, the use of PFG to support students’ critical thinking has often been limited by approaches that treat critical thinking as a purely cognitive process, making critical thinking inaccessible as a practice for students. To address this gap, this qualitative study, conducted in a writing course at a Chinese university, explores L2 student writers’ critical thinking processes during PFG, which was supported by systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The study aims to show whether and how SFL-supported PFG could provide a linguistically accessible gateway through which student writers can practice critical thinking in the context of L2 writing. This exploration is justified by existing research on the potential of PFG in supporting student writers’ critical thinking and research on SFL in transparently highlighting language resources (lexicon and grammar) in constructing and deconstructing the content of discourse. Data sources included interviews with students, a written record of the students’ PFG, and their written reflections on PFG. Qualitative analyses reveal that with the support of SFL knowledge, student evaluators gradually developed the ability to understand language resources as an accessible gateway to unpacking the meaning making of writing content. The knowledge enabled them to practice critical thinking by analyzing and evaluating the subtleties of meaning making in their peers’ writing during feedback sessions, and connecting gains from PFG to their own writing. However, it was noted that practicing critical thinking in this process was sensitive to student-internal and student-external factors in the process of PFG (e.g., insufficient knowledge of SFL, teacher support). This study concluded that overall, engaging in SFL supported by PFG provided student evaluators with an accessible channel for practicing and developing critical thinking in the context of L2 writing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100977"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The development of syntactic complexity in integrated writing: A focus on fine-grained measures","authors":"Seyyed Ehsan Golparvar ,&nbsp;J. Elliott Casal ,&nbsp;Hamideh Abolhasani","doi":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100983","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asw.2025.100983","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Past studies on complexity development in L2 writing have largely examined syntactic complexity, measured by traditional length-based measures, in independent writing, rather than integrated writing. The present research adds to the literature by investigating the development of clausal and phrasal indices of syntactic complexity in two integrated writing tasks (graph writing and summary writing) via fine-grained measures. The participants wrote three graph-based essays in the first semester, and three summary writing essays in the second semester. The results of mixed-effects modeling demonstrated significant changes in both phrasal and clausal complexity and syntactic variety at the phrasal level, evidencing growth towards a more phrasal complex academic style. Task type also had a significant impact on these measures; higher values were generally found in summary writing responses. The results are discussed in light of previous literature as well as the characteristics of the source texts, and theoretical and methodological implications for writing complexity research are offered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46865,"journal":{"name":"Assessing Writing","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100983"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145218946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}