The Writing Proficiency of Pre-service EFL Teachers and Their Judgments of Student Writing: An Exploratory Study in Mainland China

The objective of the current study is to explore how the scoring judgments of pre-service English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers relate to their levels of writing proficiency in the context of mainland China. It adopted a mixed-methods design with a quantitative analysis of the writing proficiency of teachers and a qualitative exploration of their judgments of student writing. To this end, two related studies have been designed.;Study One examined differences of writing proficiency of pre-service EFL teachers characterized by selected discourse features inherent in their writing performances. Eighty one pre-service EFL teachers from a national normal university participated in the study. Writing samples were collected through written responses to an independent writing task designed by the researcher. The discourse analytic approach was adopted to provide empirical evidence underlying expert holistic judgments of teachers' writing performances. A list of nineteen discourse features addressing different aspects of writing performance was identified on the basis of a systematic document analysis. Measures that have been used in a range of previous studies were chosen to operationalize the selected features. Analysis of Variance was then performed with each of the measures. Results suggested that eleven out of nineteen features investigated were informative of pre-service EFL teachers' writing performance in that they could successfully differentiate EFL teachers at various levels of writing proficiency.;Based on the results of Study One, three groups of teachers were identified in terms of their levels of writing proficiency, namely, Proficient, Qualified and Developing. Four teachers in each of the three groups were then selected to rate a selected sample of twelve student scripts holistically while conducting think-aloud protocols for the scores assigned. The semi-structured interviews were also conducted regarding teachers' experiences of L2 writing and writing assessment. Many-Facet Rasch Model and non-parametric tests were performed to evaluate the differences in both the scores and scoring behaviors across groups. Qualitative analysis of the interview data was conducted to provide further explanation of the scoring judgments of the participants. Analysis of think-aloud data revealed that the Proficient teachers tended to focus on a wide range of features which were more balanced and comprehensive, and they attached more emphasis on the content- and discourse-related features when explaining the scores they assigned. The Qualified and Developing teachers, by contrast, referred more frequently to the grammatical range and accuracy of the scripts, particularly the lexis and mechanics. Interview data indicated that the Proficient and Qualified teachers reported more scoring strategies with the self-monitoring and rhetorical-ideational focuses than those in the Developing group who relied more on the overall impression of the writing and spent more time on identifying and editing local problems.;The findings of the study highlighted the particular role of EFL teachers' writing proficiency in assessing student writing. The resulting data further provide empirical evidence on a number of issues significant in the teacher training and classroom assessment. Pedagogically, the study serves to inform teacher evaluation and the development of assessment literacy in the context of both high-stake and classroom assessments.