THE FACTORS AFFECTING ASSESSMENT OF WRITING WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO TEACHERS’ FEEDBACK AT SSS II LEVEL
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THE FACTORS
AFFECTING ASSESSMENT OF WRITING WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO TEACHERS’ FEEDBACK
AT SSS II LEVEL
ABSTRACT
This study
sought to assess the factors affecting the assessment of writing with
particular reference to teachers’ feedback at SSS II Level. Seven research questions were formulated to
guide the study. Relevant literatures were also cited. The study adopted
descriptive survey research design and the population for this study comprised
English teachers in selected schools in Yaba Local Government Area and Somolu
/Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos
state. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 12 senior secondary
schools and 10 students from each school.4 teachers each were selected from 10
schools and 5 teachers each were selected from two schools. This brings the
number of teachers to be 50 and the students to be 120. The instrument used to
gather information was questionnaire and the data were analysed using
percentage. Some of the findings of the study are: There are factors that
direct effective assessment of writing, both teachers and students prefer
analytic scoring, teachers’ educational qualification has a significant effect
on the assessment score, teachers’ years of experience affect the assessment of
writing, teachers’ marking strategies affect the assessment of writing. Based
on this, the study recommended among others, that government should embark on
accelerated construction of classrooms to decongest crowded classes.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The four
basic language skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is
described as the most difficult of the four language and communication skills
and the last of the skills to be acquired (Maduekwe, 2007; 157).
Writing is a
means of communication using the written word. Communication implies that what
you are writing should be understood by the person who is reading it. If your
writing does not communicate then it has not achieved the primary purpose of
writing which is to pass your message clearly to the person who is reading your
piece of writing (Ukwuegbu, et al 2002).
Writing is
an essential, indeed indispensable part of the academic engagement of students
in schools. Learning takes place when students guided by their teachers, are able
to compare issues and perspectives, define, classify, analyze and illustrate
phenomena. As students’ write, their competence, comprehension and general
capacity for learning come into focus. They are tested through writing to
discover how much has been learned or need to be learned (Oloko, 2012).
Writing is
therefore, an indispensable part of scholarship. It is about the most permanent
record of one’s view on an issue and when done appropriately and memorably, it
has the capacity to preserve reputation longer than well-rendered speeches can.
Writing well requires training, fact, imagination and rigour (Oloko, 2012).
To write
well requires a whole range of abilities-listening, speaking, reading
vocabulary, grammar etc. In other words, every writing serves a basic purpose -
to communicate something about a topic to a particular audience of readers
(Maduekwe, 2007).
Writing is a
personal act; it is an expression of the self. It draws on intuition as well as
on reasoning, on sensation and emotion, facts and memory. A writer’s
experience, educational background, exposure, co-ordination, composure or lack
of it could be revealed by his writing. Writing is a process that is done for a
purpose, which results in a product. It is a process of thought and emotion
that requires certain skills and abilities to gain the product and accomplish
the purpose (Maduekwe, 2007).
Writing is a
process of composing thought and putting the thoughts on paper in order to have
meaningful interaction with the reader. Writing contributes to learning by
clarifying thought, encourages reflection and develops analytical thinking
skills.
All
expression requires words, ideas and larger units organized into a pattern or
arrangement which accomplishes or seeks to accomplish the purpose for such
expressions. This arrangement is composition and the effectiveness of it
depends upon the thinking that went into it. Composition is essentially a
thinking process while composition hinges upon mental expression, the skill
needed to put the idea and experiences into graphic symbols on paper is the
reality called writing. Writing is therefore a process of gradual
transformation of random ideas with polished prose (Maduekwe, 2007).
Also,
writing is an act of communication, an important and difficult literacy and
language skill to develop especially in an oral culture where people generally
lack the culture of reading and writing (Ikonta, 2010).
Writing
involves a synthesis of a number of skills which the writer utilizes almost
simultaneously namely; choosing a topic, arranging ideas in a particular order,
putting them into words, sentences and paragraphs and revising to an acceptable
standard. Writing therefore is a process. It is not an activity accomplished in
one sitting, rather just as a house is built in stages, writing also is built
in stages. It is generative and has an interrelated set of recursive stages of
pre-writing, drafting, revision, editing, proofreading and publishing (Ikonta,
2010; 165).
Writing must
be done in stages. The first stage has to do with linguistics acquisition and
cognition. This is important because you cannot write your speech in a language
you do not understand. After you have acquired the linguistic skill, you then
move to other stages of drafting and proof reading before the presentation
(Adedun, 2012).
Written work
in English is a major determiner for overall evaluation of the performance of
students at the secondary level. Maduekwe (2007) opines that at the junior
secondary level, written composition is usually controlled and guided based on
oral words e.g. writing about one’s family, holidays etc. However, at the
senior secondary level, the intention is to foster free writing as well as to
further enhance the basic skills in creative writing introduced at the junior
level.
It is
through composition we can most efficiently train the pupil to use language to
express his feelings, needs, ideas, knowledge, and interest with exactness and
precision. Composition develops intellectual and emotional maturity of the
pupil. Through composition, the pupil learns to use language clearly,
correctly, precisely and effectively. The assessment of composition writing is
thus central to the process of effective teaching and learning of writing
(Jones, 2002).
The
evaluation of writing ability of second language students’ has become
increasingly important in recent years because the results of such evaluations
are used for a variety of administrative, instructional, and research purposes.
Due to the different linguistic and cultural backgrounds of
English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students, the assessment of their English
writing is more problematic than the assessment of Nigeria English (NE)
students’ writing (Hamp-Lyons,1991).
One of the
first decisions to be made in determining a system for directly assessing
writing quality is what type of scoring procedure will be used: should a single
score be given to each text, or should the different features of a text be
scored? This issue has been the subject of a great deal of research and
discussion in the composition literature. There are generally two different
types of writing scale for assessing student written proficiency, holistic
marking and analytical marking (McNamara, 2000).
Holistic
marking is where the scorer records a single impression of the impact of the
performance as a whole (McNamara, 2000: 43). In short, holistic marking is
based on the marker’s total impression of the essay as a whole.
Analytic
marking, on the other hand is where raters provide separate assessment for each
of a number of aspects of performance. In other words, raters mark selected
aspects of a piece of writing and assign point values to quantifiable criteria
(Combe&Wiens, 1999). It involves the separation of the various features of
a composition into components for scoring purposes. Depending on the purpose of
the assessment, texts might be rated on such features as content, organization,
cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar or mechanics.
Another
decision to make in the assessment of writing is the question of how valid or
reliable the assessment is because validity and reliability are central to
effective assessment practice (Speek& Jones, 1998).
According to
Munice (2000), feedback is vital in helping learners to improve their writing
skill and whatever forms it takes; it can have positive effect on the learners’
awareness in terms of writing. It is commonly reported that students do not
read teachers’ feedback comments (Duncan, 2007). This however, suggest that
teachers and students see feedback in isolation from other aspects of the
teaching and learning process, and consider feedback to be primarily a teacher
owned endeavor (Taras, 2003).
Correspondingly,
feedback process is most effective when all the teachers and students are
actually involved in the process. One strategy is to design assessment so that
students can see the direct benefits of attending to feedback advice (Nicol,
2008).
Another
strategy to encourage student reflection on feedback comments is to give a provisional
grade, but invite students to talk about their work and potentially earn a
higher grade ( Taras, 2003).
1.2
Statement of the Problem
It is widely
recognized that feedback is an important part of the learning cycle, but both
students and teachers frequently express disappointment and frustration in
relation to the conduct of the feedback process.
Students may
complain that feedback on assessment of writing is unhelpful or useless, and
sometimes even demoralizing. Additionally, students are not given guidance as
to how to use feedback to improve subsequent performance. Even worse, students
sometimes note that feedback is provided too late to be of any use or relevance
at all. For their part, teachers feel that students are not interested in
feedback comments and are only concerned with the mark.
Furthermore,
teachers express frustration that students do not incorporate feedback advice
into subsequent tasks. This project seeks to examine some of the issues
associated with feedback on assessment and provide some guidelines for
effective writing.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The central
purpose of this research is that to some extent, writing is not fairly assessed
or scored as they should be because various factors have been found to affect
the accuracy, reliability and validity of the scoring and assessment of
writing. The purpose of this study therefore is to examine some of these
factors that affect effective assessment of writing with particular reference
to teachers feedback in some selected secondary schools in Lagos State,
Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are:
1. To determine the factors that affect
effective assessment of writing.
2. To ascertain which of the methods of
assessment (holistic or analytic) is more effective in assessing writing.
3. To examine the extent to which
teachers’ educational qualification affect assessment of writing.
4. To investigate the extent to which
teachers’ years of experience affect effective assessment of writing.
5. To explore the extent to which
teachers’ marking strategies affect effective
assessment of writing.
6. To find out the strategies used by
teachers for providing effective
feedback.
7. To determine the importance of
feedback on students' writing development.
1.4 Research Questions
The present
study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. What are the factors that direct
effective assessment of writing?
2. Which of these approaches (holistic
or analytic) do teachers mostly adopt?
3. To what extent does teachers’
educational qualification affect effective assessment of writing?
4. To what extent do teachers’ years of
experience affect effective assessment of writing?
5. To what extent does teachers’
marking strategies affect assessment of composition writing?
6. Which strategies are effective for
providing effective feedback?
7. Of what importance is teachers'
feedback on students' writing development?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The
following are the significance of the present study. It will increase database
on the factors that affect effective assessment of writing.
It will
alert evaluators and the government on the problem in assessment and also the
factors that affect effective assessment of writing.
It will
provide English language teachers with the knowledge of the factors that affect
effective assessment of writing.
It will enlighten English language teachers on
the impact and importance of teachers’ feedback on students writing
development.
It will
provide teachers’ with the strategies needed for effective feedback on
students’ writing development.
Furthermore,
the study will suggest possible solutions to the problems highlighted in the
assessment of writing and teachers’ feedback.
It will also serve as a guide for future research.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of
this study will be limited to assessment and teachers’ feedback and not any
other classroom process. Similarly, this study will be focused on and will be
limited to writing skill and not any other language skill such as listening,
speaking or reading. Also, the focus of this study will be on Senior Secondary
School II Students of English Language in Yaba Local Government Area and
Shomolu/Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos State. The study will be
selecting twelve (12) schools involving fifty (50) English Language teachers
and one hundred and twenty (120) students.
1.7
Operational Definition of Terms
Assessment: is a systemic and systematic process of
examining students’ progress in learning.
Feedback: a
critical assessment or suggestions to improve performance
Writing
skill: it is one of the four basic language and communication skill required by
the learner for effective communication.
Writing: is
a process of composing thoughts and putting the thoughts on paper in order to
have meaningful interaction with the reader.
Composition:
is the arrangement of words, ideas and expression in a particular pattern
Language: is
a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional
symbols.
Communication:
is the act or process of using words to express or exchange information.
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