The Diagnosis of Writing in a Second or Foreign Language

The Diagnosis of Writing in a Second or Foreign Language is a comprehensive survey of diagnostic assessment of second/foreign language (SFL) writing. In this innovative book, a compelling case is made for SFL writing as an individual, contextual, and multidimensional ability, combining several theoretically informed approaches upon which to base diagnosis. Using the diagnostic cycle as the overarching framework, the book starts with the planning phase, cover design, development, and delivery of diagnostic assessment, ending with feedback and feed-forward aspects to feed diagnostic information into the teaching and learning process. It covers means to diagnose both the writing processes and products, including the design and development of diagnostic tasks and rating scales, as well as automated approaches to assessment. Also included is a range of existing instruments and approaches to diagnosing SFL writing. Addressing large-scale as well as classroom contexts, this volume is useful for researchers, teachers, and educational policy-makers in language learning.

Ari Huhta is Professor of Language Assessment at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Claudia Harsch is Professor of Research into Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment at the University of Bremen, and the director of the Languages Centre of the Universities in the Land Bremen, Germany. Dmitri Leontjev is a senior researcher at the Centre for Applied Language Studies of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Lea Nieminen is a research coordinator at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Foreword Chapter 1 Introduction to diagnosing SFL writing Chapter 2 The development of writing ability Chapter 3 The cognitive basis of writing ability with a special reference to SFL writing Chapter 4 How writing ability can be diagnosed Chapter 5 Characteristics of tasks designed to diagnose writing Chapter 6 Diagnosing the writing process Chapter 7 Analyzing writing products by rating them Chapter 8 Automated analysis of writing Chapter 9 The role of feedback in diagnosing SFL writing ability Chapter 10 Conclusions and ways forward References Index