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The Assessment of L2 Written English across the MENA Region

A Synthesis of Practice

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Editors:
  1. Lee McCallum

    1. Social Sciences and International Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

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  2. Christine Coombe

    1. Dubai Men's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides a synthesis of assessment practices currently taking place across the MENA region
  • Establishes similarities and differences between countries in their administration, development and use of writing assessments
  • Showcases research and practice from under-represented educational settings

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvi
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  2. Test Design and Administration: Connections to Curriculum and Teacher Understandings of Assessment

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction

      • Lee McCallum, Christine Coombe
      Pages 3-12

    3. Language Assessment Literacy: Task Analysis in Saudi Universities

      • Mubina Rauf, Lee McCallum
      Pages 13-41

    4. Creational Reverse Engineering: A Project to Enhance English Placement Test Security, Validity, and Reliability

      • Hadeel El Rahal, Huda Dimashkie
      Pages 43-68

    5. Rebuilding the Tower of Babel? Promises and Problems of World Englishes for Writing Assessment

      • Esmat Babaii
      Pages 69-90

  3. Grading and Feedback Connections: Exploring Grading Criteria, Practices and the Provision of Feedback

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91
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    2. CAF Profiles of Iranian Writers: What We Learn from Them and Their Limitations

      • Niloufar Shahmirzadi
      Pages 93-111

    3. Exploring the Essay Rating Judgements of English Instructors in the Middle East

      • Analynn P. Bustamante, Selahattin Yilmaz
      Pages 113-141

    4. How Writing Teachers’ Beliefs Influence Grading Practices

      • Najoua Ben Hedia
      Pages 143-170

    5. Designing Scoring Rubrics for Different Writing Tasks: The Case of Resume Writing in Iran

      • Mojtaba Mohammadi, Jaber Kamali
      Pages 171-193

    6. Primary Trait Rubric: The Case of MENA Countries

      • Reza Vahdani-Sanavi
      Pages 195-221

  4. Teaching and Assessment Connections: Exploring Learner Performance and the Impact of Instruction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 223-223
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    2. Assessing L2 Argumentation in the UAE Context

      • Jingjing Qin
      Pages 225-240

    3. Integrated Summarizing Read-to-Write Tasks: Patterns of Textual Borrowing and the Role of the Written Genre

      • Katayoun Rezaei, Elaheh Sotoudehnama
      Pages 241-267

    4. Changing Practices to Overcome Writing Difficulties in EFL Courses at University: A Lebanese Case Study

      • Tamara Al Khalili
      Pages 269-296

    5. Integrating Computer- and Teacher-Provided Feedback in an EFL Academic Writing Context

      • Mojtaba Heydari, Fahimeh Marefat
      Pages 297-323

    6. Research on Feedback in EFL Classes in the MENA Region: State of the Art

      • Moez Athimni, Safa Yaakoubi, Hanin Bouzaiene
      Pages 325-355

  5. Using Research Methods to Capture the Nature of Writing Proficiency and its Assessment

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 357-357
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    2. Spelling Errors in the Preliminary English B1 Exam: Corpus-Informed Evaluation of Examination Criteria for MENA Contexts

      • Niall Curry, Tony Clark
      Pages 359-392
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Keywords

About this book

This edited book brings together contributions from different educational contexts across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in order to explore how L2 English writing is assessed. Across seven MENA countries, the book covers aspects of practice including: task design and curriculum alignment, test (re)development, rubric design, the subjective decision making that underpins assessing students’ writing and feedback provision, learner performance and how research methods help shed light on initiatives to improve student writing. In such coverage, chapter authors provide concrete evidence of how assessment practice is governed by their unique context, yet also influenced by international standards, trends and resources. This book will be of interest to second language teachers, assessors and programme developers as well as test designers and evaluators.

Reviews

“The chapters in this volume represent a unique and informative overview of current research and practices in the area of writing assessment across MENA. I am particularly impressed by the breadth and quality of the chapters and am convinced that the collection offers an unrivalled starting point for those interested in research on writing assessment in the region and beyond.” --Professor Barry O'Sullivan OBE, British Council, UK


Editors and Affiliations

  • Social Sciences and International Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Lee McCallum

  • Dubai Men's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Christine Coombe

About the editors

Lee McCallum is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK.  She has extensive teaching and assessment experience from the Middle East, Europe and China. Her most recent work is a co-authored book entitled Understanding Development and Proficiency in Writing: Quantitative Corpus Linguistics Approaches (forthcoming, 2021).



Christine Coombe is an Associate Professor of General Studies at Dubai Men's College, United Arab Emirates.  Christine is co-editor of multiple projects, including The Cambridge Guide to Research in Language Teaching and Learning (2015). Her forthcoming books are on research questions in language education and professionalism. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Assessment of L2 Written English across the MENA Region

  • Book Subtitle: A Synthesis of Practice

  • Editors: Lee McCallum, Christine Coombe

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53254-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-53253-6Published: 20 December 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-53256-7Published: 20 December 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-53254-3Published: 19 December 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXVI, 432

  • Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations, 18 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Education, general, Linguistics, general, Writing Skills, Language Education, Language Policy and Planning, Middle Eastern Culture

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