Investigation of the Impact of Prompt Type on Writing Performance of Pre-service Teachers based on Continuation Task
محورهای موضوعی :Nader Afshounpour 1 , Peyman Rajabi 2 , Hossein Ahmadi 3
1 - Department of English Language Teaching, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor in TEFL, Department of English Language Teaching, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University Iran
3 - Department of English Language Teaching, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
کلید واژه: Writing assessment, Prompt type, Writing performance, EFL writing,
چکیده مقاله :
This study examined the effect of the writing prompt properties on Iranian EFL pre-service teachers` essay writing. The continuation task, a new form of reading-writing integrated task in which test-takers read an incomplete story and then write the continuation and ending of the story, has been increasingly used in writing assessment. Language-test developers’ understanding of the effects of important task-related factors on test-takers’ performance with regard to this task is still in its infancy. In this study we study the effect of prompt type on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance in a continuation task. Three groups of Iranian EFL learners performed a continuation task with three different prompts and filled out a writing strategy questionnaire. The participants’ continuations were scored holistically and textually analyzed using a range of fluency, grammatical accuracy, lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, cohesion, and source-use features. Prompt type significantly affected the participants’ overall continuation writing scores, syntactic complexity, cohesion, and source-use features.
This study examined the effect of the writing prompt properties on Iranian EFL pre-service teachers` essay writing. The continuation task, a new form of reading-writing integrated task in which test-takers read an incomplete story and then write the continuation and ending of the story, has been increasingly used in writing assessment. Language-test developers’ understanding of the effects of important task-related factors on test-takers’ performance with regard to this task is still in its infancy. In this study we study the effect of prompt type on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance in a continuation task. Three groups of Iranian EFL learners performed a continuation task with three different prompts and filled out a writing strategy questionnaire. The participants’ continuations were scored holistically and textually analyzed using a range of fluency, grammatical accuracy, lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, cohesion, and source-use features. Prompt type significantly affected the participants’ overall continuation writing scores, syntactic complexity, cohesion, and source-use features.
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