Examining the development of paragraph writing ability of tertiary ESL students: A continuous assessment study

Abstract

This study investigates the development in paragraph writing ability of 116 undergraduate English as a second language (ESL) students enrolled in a paragraph writing course. Students wrote sample paragraphs before, during, and after the course, and these were marked on an analytical scale by multiple expert raters. The results were first subjected to many-facet Rasch model (MFRM) analysis to measure differences in rater severity and identify rater misfits; raters’ scores were anchored to these initial results to generate fair scores for students. Next, a curve-of-factors latent growth model was fitted to the scores. The results showed that students’ ability in multiple writing skills grew gradually and linearly from the beginning of the course. This progress was found to be independent of the writing prompts. Students’ development is attributed to a variety of facilitative factors, including explicit lessons and frequent practice, regular feedback through a continuous assessment (CA) approach and various opportunities to engage with class tutors, and the use of online technology in the course.