This preliminary study examined the factor structure of the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory in two samples of about 750 college students of English as a foreign language in Taiwan. Results of confirmatory factor analysis lend partial support to Horwitz's theoretical five-factor belief model. Subsequent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of data show that a four-factor model represented by only 12 items performed better than other models both theoretically and empirically. This model consists of two dimensions already theorized in the inventory: Difficulty of Language Learning and Foreign Language Aptitude, and two newly interpreted dimensions, Importance of Spoken Language and Analytical Approaches to Language Learning. Although this four-factor model could be replicated in an independent sample, the factors are not reliable, suggesting the need to search for a more representative set of beliefs to tap specific aspects of language learning.
This article investigates the relative importance of various grammatical and discourse features in the evaluation of second language (L2) writing samples produced by college students enrolled in beginning and intermediate French courses. Three native-speaking instructors of French rated 172 essays using a scale that was constructed by the researcher and based on theory and research from discourse analysis. The scale contained 4 areas of evaluationmorphology, syntax, cohesion, and coherence-encompassing a total of 35 language/textual features, in addition to a holistic judgment of overall quality. Among the findings are that (a) raters relied heavily on discourse features, especially those for cohesion, in judging the overall quality of an essay; and (b) the rating scale exhibits content validity and reliability, although refinement is still needed to achieve a desired construct validity. Future research should focus on discovering other elements involved in the rating practice through analytical delineations and validation procedures and on adapting the proposed rating instrument for large-scale assessment contexts.THIS ARTICLE REPORTS A PRELIMINARY study of evaluation of second language (L2) samples. It addresses perceived inadequacies in current evaluative practices with the intent of increasing their validity. These inadequacies include (a) the "isolated" approach, such as that adopted in error gravity studies, that focuses on discrete, formal features of language devoid of discourse context, and (b) the summary approach, as is commonly found in the field of direct writing assessment, that is primarily concerned with practical value but largely ignores its theoretical justification and the practitioner's role as contributor to knowledge in language proficiency.The present study reflects an integrated approach that consists of the following three interrelated steps: (a) assessing language features within a relatively complete discourse universe so as to take account of the full significance of their qualities, (b) moving beyond the narrow focus on grammatical elements to incorporate the extrasentential domain of this universe, and (c) providing theoretical and empirical justifications for the measures adopted.For this study, I constructed a rating scale (see Tables 1 and 2) primarily as a research instrument that is based on current theories in communicative competence modeling and discourse analysis and applied it to the evaluation of pagelong essays written by students enrolled in college French courses in the U.S. The purposes of the study were (a) to delineate and identify language features relevant to the evaluation of writing samples of beginning and intermediate learners of French as a Foreign Language, and (b) to examine the relative importance of these features in raters' perception of writing quality.
BACKGROUND
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