Mainstream Teacher Candidates' Perspectives on ESL Writing: The Effects of Writer Identity and Rater Background

Abstract

This study explored the extent to which the ethnic identity of a writer and the background (gender and area of teaching) of a rater can influence mainstream teacher candidates' evaluation of English as a second language (ESL) writing, using a matched-guise method. A one-page essay was elicited from an ESL learner enrolled in an intensive English program and was manipulated to incorporate error patterns often observed among Chinese-and Spanish-speaking learners. Teacher candidates were led to believe it was produced by an ESL learner whose first language was either Chinese or Spanish. One-hundred-sixty-three undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program at a U.S. university were asked to score the ESL essay holistically, provide qualitative comments, identify the three most troublesome errors in order of seriousness, and offer advice on how to improve ESL writing. No significant effects of writer identity on the holistic scoring were detected, but the teacher candidates revealed different categories of rater responses depending on the writer's identity. Conversely, although the raters' backgrounds (gender and area of teaching) had significant effects on global scoring, they did not have any significant impact on the qualitative nature of rater responses. doi: 10.1002/tesq.289 C urrently, at least one in five school-age children in the United States has a foreign-born parent, and many start to learn English as a new language at school (Capps et al., 2005). The percentage of English learners (ELs) in K-12 schools has shown steady growth from 8.7%, or an estimated 4.1 million students, in the 2002-2003 school year to 9.1%, or an estimated 4.4 million students, in 2011 -2012(Kena et al., 2014. Moreover, the representation of ELs in U.S. schools shows a high concentration in early school years, in part because children who enter preschool or kindergarten as ELs develop their TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 0, No. 0, xxxx 2016 Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA 1 English proficiency as they move up grade levels, usually by third grade (Garc ıa, Arias, Murri, & Serna, 2010). In contrast to the increasingly diverse student population nationwide, teachers entering the profession continue to reflect majority culture in that approximately 83% of the U.S. teaching force identify themselves as White and monolingual in English (Goldring, Gracy, Bitterman, & Broughman, 2013). Previous research demonstrates that the teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practices in the classroom can support or impair ELs and their academic achievement (de Jong & Harper, 2005;Flores & Smith, 2009). However, little is known about teacher candidates' attitudes toward ELs and their linguistic and cultural differences.This study set out to examine preservice teachers' perspectives on English as a second language (ESL) writing. Using a matched-guise protocol (Roberts & Cimasko, 2008;Rubin & Williams-James, 1997), we presented 163 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education programs ...

Challenges in BCOM: Student and Faculty Perceptions on English as an Additional Language

“…The emotional stressors that students experience in the classroom due to self-confidence and feelings of isolation also add nuance to what has been said about students’ choices to participate in the classroom other than cultural behaviors (Jenkins, 2000) and linguistic proficiency (Ortega, 2014). In addition, the finding that EAL students feel different and disadvantaged compared with their peers highlights another dimension to the predicament BCOM faculty face when trying to get students job ready, meet course standards and maintain fairness in grading, all while accommodating students of different backgrounds, challenges, and needs (Huang, 2009; Kang & Veitch, 2017; Milnes & Cheng, 2008).…”

“…Yet researchers as well as instructors are not ignorant of the serious questions and ethical concerns that teachers face when dealing with grades and student expectations (Kang & Veitch, 2017; Lewis et al, 2002; O’Rourke, 1993). O’Rourke (1993) posed many thought-provoking questions that still resonate with BCOM professors today:What does it mean to a prospective employer to see a BCOM course on a transcript and a passing grade next to the course number?…”

Rater severity differences in English language as a second language speaking assessment based on rating experience, training experience, and teaching experience through many-faceted Rasch measurement analysis

“…Literature has widely reported that one's background can either positively or negatively impact how one rates candidates. Raters' backgrounds include rating experience (Huang et al, 2018;Ahmadi Shirazi, 2019;Şahan and Razı, 2020), training experience (Duijm et al, 2017;Bijani, 2018Bijani, , 2019, teaching experience (Kang and Veitch, 2017;Eckstein and Univer, 2018;Kang et al, 2019), raters' first language (Hijikata-Someya et al, 2015;Marefat and Heydari, 2016;Ahmadi Shirazi, 2019;Kang et al, 2019), familiarity about candidates (Huang et al, 2016;Tanriverdi-Koksal and Ortactepe, 2017;Wikse Barrow et al, 2019), personal traits, gender (Bijani and Khabiri, 2017;Protivínský and Münich, 2018), academic achievement (He et al, 2013;Soltero-González et al, 2016), age (Soltero-González et al, 2016;Isbell, 2017), and cultural background (Stassenko et al, 2014). In terms of raters' experiences, three types of experience are widely examined, which are rating experience, training experience, and teaching experience.…”

“…Ideally, with more rating experience, raters' rating quality would be better (Eckes, 2015). Studies on how rating experience can affect raters' ratings have employed many different groups of raters as respondents who are divided into groups based on research contexts (Duijm et al, 2017;Kang and Veitch, 2017;Bijani, 2018Bijani, , 2019Eckstein and Univer, 2018;Huang et al, 2018;Ahmadi Shirazi, 2019;Kang et al, 2019;Şahan and Razı, 2020). Findings from the research have mainly reported that a significant difference was discovered among the rater groups.…”