Springer Science and Business Media LLC

English language writing is important in university entrance examinations in Japan and influences what learners and teachers do in English classes. This is especially noticeable in secondary education in Japan. While much research on university entrance examinations in Japan has been conducted, little attention has been paid to the types of writing required in these examinations. This study draws on the notion of micro-genre developed by researchers of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to investigate what micro-genres are required in writing tasks in the examinations. Fifty writing tasks appearing in examinations in 2013 were examined. It was found that only four micro-genres occurred in the examinations, namely expositions, personal reflections, discussions, and sequential explanations. Two micro-genres, expositions and personal reflections, amounted to 83.9 % of the examined writing tasks. This tendency was seen even when micro-genres of the writing tasks by faculty type (science vs. humanities and arts) were identified. The limited range of micro-genres prepared for the writing tasks in the examinations may greatly influence the activities of English writing teaching and learning in secondary education in Japan.

Washback refers to the influence of tests on learning and teaching. To date, a number of studies have revealed that tests affect teaching content, course design, and classroom practices. However, in Asian higher education contexts, little research has examined the washback of proficiency tests on English learning in comparison with the efforts on teaching. Thus, the current study bridged this research gap by exploring the washback effects of a proficiency test on student learning in a campus-wide English curriculum, uncovering relationships between washback and learner characteristics such as major, gender, and proficiency level. A total of 694 students from engineering-, business-, and foreign language-related disciplines at a national university in Taiwan were surveyed. The results revealed washback effects on such aspects as personal image, learning motivation, emotion, and future job opportunities were especially salient. In addition, the relationship between washback and proficiency level was found to be statistically significant. However, male and female students did not differ statistically in washback nor was there a statistically significant difference in washback among different majors. With detailed information and consideration of different aspects of washback, stakeholders, including instructors, school administrators, and language policymakers, can make informed decisions when formulating language-related policies.

The CEFR, ever since its inception, has had profound impact on language teaching, learning, and assessment not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world. This study focuses on the adaptability of CEFR writing descriptors in the context of Test for English Majors (TEM). First, we constructed a questionnaire based on the descriptors collected from various sources in order to elicit university teachers’ views on the importance of these descriptors. A revised version was produced based on the feedback from the initial questionnaire survey. In order to further investigate what level or levels these remaining descriptors would fall into, 35 university teachers of English were invited to complete the revised questionnaire while rating 36 TEM writing scripts. Band-setting of the descriptors was initially determined on the basis of the questionnaire data, the result of which was the draft scale of writing ability. In order to collect further evidence for our calibration of the descriptors, eight university teachers of English were interviewed. Based on the interview data, some descriptors were fine-tuned before the scale was finalized. The results have shown that CEFR writing descriptors can be used in the description of the writing ability of TEM candidates, but most of the CEFR descriptors surveyed have had their original level altered in our writing ability scale.

Effective education and evaluation may be achieved when the mental and emotional health of the students being evaluated are taken into consideration. As a consequence of this, the purpose of this research was to try to highlight the dynamic that exists between Test Anxiety (TA), Academic Emotion Regulation (AER), L2 grit (L2G), academic resilience (AR), and core of self-assessment (CAS). In order to accomplish this goal, 417 English as a foreign language (EFL) students from Kuwait were provided with copies of the Test Anxiety Scale, the Academic Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Language-domain-specific Grit Scale, the Academic Resilience Scale, and the Core of Self‑Assessment Questionnaire. The screening of the data using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) explicitly determined the impacts AER, L2G, AR, and CAS had on TA. It means that students who has developed a healthy state of AER, L2G, AR, and CSA could modulate their Test Anxiety skillfully. The implications of the study, which might lead to enhancements in language instruction and evaluation, are discussed in detail.

This study discusses the characteristics of test specifications (specs) and item writer guidelines (IWGs), their role in item development of English as a Second Language (ESL) reading tests, and the use of the CEFR for specs development. This mixed-method study analyzed specs, IWGs, tests, and the Pearson Test of English General test statistics. Moreover, interviews and focus groups were conducted with the specs’ developers, IWGs, and item writers. The findings show no unique way of conceptualizing specs and IWGs. Moreover, translating the CEFR reading descriptors into specs is a challenging task. However, results from the judgmental study and item statistics suggest that the investigated specs and IWGs facilitated the development of good-quality items at a certain difficulty level. This study reveals the potential role of specs and IWGs in establishing test validity. This research contributes to understanding the under-researched area of specs and IWGs and shows the type of information required for effective item writing and ways of enhancing the validity and reliability of tests. Practical and theoretical suggestions and future research have also been identified.

Despite the many pedagogical benefits of self-/peer-assessment, they are not often practiced in the classroom, due to the fact that most teachers doubt learners' ability to do self-/peer-assessment accurately. Although several factors have been identified to affect self-/peer-assessment accuracy, the literature shows the rating accuracy of learners can improve if enough training is provided. Given the abovementioned supporting literature, it was hypothesized that learners, if provided with training and practice, may also have the potential to show behavior similar to that of expert-raters in terms of holistic and analytic intra-reliability. To test this hypothesis, having been trained to do self-/peer-assessment according to their group assignment, 136 English-major students conducted self-/peer-assessment of writing performance both holistically and analytically across 11 sessions. After correlating the students and raters' holistic and analytic scores and examining the variations among the correlations, it was found that students have indeed got the potential to show rating behaviors similar to those of expert raters and at times even show higher correlations. This paper closes with some implications these findings can have for theory and practice, and some new lines of research are recommended in the area investigated in this study.