Analysis of discourse features and verification of scoring levels for independent and integrated prototype written tasks for new TOEFL
By: Alister Cumming, Robert Kantor ; Kyoko Baba ... [et al.].
Contributors: Kantor, Robert.; Baba, Kyoko.; Educational Testing Service.
Series: TOEFL monograph series -- MS-30
Publisher: Educational Testing Service
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 77
Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers.; English language -- Ability testing.; English language -- Discourse analysis.; Examinations -- Design and construction.; Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Description: "We assessed whether and how the discourse written for prototype integrated tasks (involving writing in response to print or audio source texts) field tested for the new TOEFLʾ differs from the discourse written for independent essays (i.e., the TOEFL essay). We selected 216 compositions written for 6 tasks by 36 examinees in a field testb7srepresenting Score Levels 3, 4, and 5 on the TOEFL essayb7sthen coded the texts for lexical and syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, argument structure, orientations to evidence, and verbatim uses of source text. Analyses with nonparametric MANOVAs, following a 3-by-3 (task type by English proficiency level) within-subjects factorial design, showed that the discourse produced for the integrated writing tasks differed significantly at the lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and pragmatic levels from the discourse produced in the independent essay on most of these variables. In certain analyses, these differences were also obtained across the 3 ESL proficiency levels."--Publisher's website (www.ets.org)
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.

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