INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Vol.
8 No.
September 2018, pp.
Available online at:
http://ejournal.
edu/index.
php/IJAL/article/view/13301 doi: 10.
17509/ijal.
Teacher-student collaborative assessment (TSCA) in integrated language classrooms Sun Shuguang1* and Wen Qiufang2 Faculty of Foreign Languages.
Beijing Sport University.
Beijing.
China National Research Center for Foreign Language Education.
Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Beijing.
China
ABSTRACT
Assessing studentsAo productive performance is challenging in China because large class sizes inevitably lead to heavy workloads for teachers.
To address this problem, a new method of assessment, teacher-student collaborative assessment (TSCA)Aiwas proposed in 2016 to organize and balance different modes of teacher assessment, self-assessment, peer assessment, and computer-mediated assessment.
The present study took one intact class as a case, aiming to explore how TSCA could be carried out efficiently and systematically in the classroom and how students perceived TSCA.
Qualitative data obtained include studentsAo writing drafts and revision, interview, and reflective journals of the students and the teacher.
Interview data indicated that the students responded to this type of assessment positively and thought they benefited greatly from the teacherAos instruction and peer discussion.
This was triangulated by the studentsAo reflections in which all the students spoke highly of TSCA and agreed that this method was a good way to pinpoint their weaknesses and help them learn how to revise their essay better.
The students reported that they formed a new perception of self-assessment and self-revision and felt that a lot was gained.
Keywords: Classroom-based research.
L2 writing.
teacher-student collaborative assessment.
writing assessment First Received:
16 May 2018 Final Proof Received:
24 September 2018 Revised:
16 August 2018 Accepted:
1 September 2018 Published:
30 September 2018 How to cite .
n APA styl.
Sun.
, & Wen.
Teacher-student collaborative assessment (TSCA) in integrated language classrooms.
Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
, pp.
doi: 10.
17509/ijal.
Different from its traditional sense of evaluating or grading, assessment here mainly means providing helpful feedback and revision to improve learning.
In language education, second language (L.
teachers spend a significant amount of time responding to studentsAo written work believing that problems in studentsAo writing need to be dealt with, and errors need to be corrected.
L2 learners also value and want more written comments from teachers (Lee, 2.
Two meta-analyses showed that there was a medium overall effect of oral corrective feedback (CF).
the effect was maintained over time (Li, 2.
and written CF could lead to greater grammatical accuracy in L2 writing (Kang & Han, 2.
All these studies have proven that INTRODUCTION Assessment, a natural part of the teaching and learning process, is administered to support learning (Berry, therefore, it has a huge impact upon teaching and learning (Baird.
Andrich.
Hopfenbeck, & Stobart, 2017.
Wiliam 2.
This notion, which emphasizes the role of a learner and teacher in assessment, results from a paradigm shift from input-oriented norm referenced assessment to outcome-based and standard-referenced assessment (Davison & Cummins, 2.
Recent studies on this line of research, especially formative assessment, stress the importance of this learning and teaching potential .
Black, 2015.
McDonald, 2018.
Shepard.
Penuel, & Pellegrino, 2018.
Taras, 2.
* Corresponding Author Email: dodiesun@163.
Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 method of assessing studentsAo workAiteacher-student collaborative assessment (TSCA) (Wen, 2016a, 2016.
Aito tackle the challenges of assessing studentsAo production: low efficiency and poor effectiveness without diminishing the production or compromising the feedback.
TSCA is mainly carried out in class with the aim to assess a selective few of studentsAo written compositions finished after class.
Compared to other forms of assessment (See Table .
TSCA has three prominent features (Wen, 2016.
The first feature of TSCA is collaboration of students and teachers.
TSCA is not a simple combination of teacher assessment and self-assessment or peer assessment and machine assessment .
, students selfedit the first draft, and teacher edits the second draf.
, but rather, it is a joint assessment where the teacher selects a sample of studentsAo typicalwritten products on a certain task which in turn is then assessed by students and the teacher collaboratively in class.
Secondly, in TSCA, both a teacher and students check both learning outcomes and the quality of the work.
TSCA is not confined to assessing studentsAo language products, but it also includes examining whether the students have achieved the objectives of the learned unit.
Specifically, this form of assessment attaches great importance to evaluate how well the learning objectives are achieved, rather than the quality of products alone.
Another feature of TSCA is multiple assessments.
After in-class TSCA, students have a better understanding of how to assess, which serves as their starting point to carry out effective self-assessment or peer assessment after class.
Afterwards, the revised version can be assessed by an automated scoring system where students can see their scores and read some general comments.
The records of their improvement can also be saved.
The current study aims to probe whether this form of assessment can serve as an effective alternative to existing assessments and studentsAo perceptions of it.
Specifically, the following research questions were put How can TSCA be carried out in the Is it effective? What are studentsAo perceptions of TSCA? providing CF as a form of assessment is widely agreed both in practice and in research.
In the EFL context, what teachers in mainland China have been doing is similar to what Lee.
Mak & Burns .
described: Mark single drafts, focus predominantly on errors, and respond to errors This Aoteacher-onlyAo approach is timeconsuming and discouraging, it may not come to any For one, it is no easy feat for teachers to keep up with assessing large classes with 50 to 60 students in For another, students might not even read teachersAo comments or revisions carefully since what they care most is the score on the paper.
The effectiveness is compromised even for those who do read the teacher-written feedback, since students might not understand why it should be corrected this way, and it cannot be guaranteed that they will not make the same mistakes again.
In order to overcome the limitations of teacher assessment and lessen the workload, some teachers seek to adopt alternative forms of assessment: selfassessment and peer assessment .
Hanjani, 2016.
Yu & Hu, 2017.
Yu & Lee, 2.
StudentsAo involvement in the assessment process can enhance their learning autonomy and help them process linguistic features deeper which lead to Aointernalization.
Ao However, peer assessment and self-assessment studies have indicated that students need training and experience in order to perform these tasks effectively .
Freeman, 1995.
Jafarpour, 1.
Often times, students do not know exactly how to revise their own or peerAos written work, or they may not trust their own or peerAos revisions.
This inability to find errors (Sun, 2017a, 2017.
, distrust in the peersAo correction (Tsui & Ng, 2.
, and habitual focus on surface-level mistakes (Hanjani, 2016.
Khonbi & Sadeghi 2.
threaten reliability and validity of such assessment (Blanche.
Still, many teachers have resorted to technology in the form of automated scoring systems to use it alone or to supplement teacher assessment .
Burstein.
Chodorow, & Leacock, 2014.
Chen & Cheng, 2.
These computer-mediated assessment tools are fast and saves teacher time: with a click of a button the scores are shown.
grammatical mistakes are revealed.
alternative expressions are suggested.
However, these conveniences have to be weighed against their For one, a sentence may be grammatically correct, but the content could be totally off (Attali, 2.
Likewise, the structure of sentences may not make sense in relation to each other.
addition, the automated assessment tools cannot tell whether the objectives are achieved or not (Sun, 2017.
In a word, machines cannot address the aspects of writing that require human evaluation such as communicative eAectiveness, styles, relevant content, and audience awareness.
Given the aforementioned weaknesses of teacher, self-, peer and computer-mediated assessment in EFL
writing contexts, the current study introduces a new
METHOD
Context and participants As mentioned before, university English teachers in mainland China adopted the teacher-only approach when assessing writing.
Tsui and Ng .
0, p.
found that Hong Kong students viewed the teacher as a Aofigure of authority that guaranteed quality.
Ao This is also the case for Chinese mainlanders.
The expectation of guaranteed quality placed on the teacher is exacerbated at the tertiary level with larger class sizes.
Assessing studentsAo written work becomes a real chore and a headache when the number of students reaches 80 or even 140 per class.
Keeping up with assessing and giving feedback in such large classes has become an Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 unmanageable undertaking for teachers.
No wonder some scholars conclude that assessment has become our enemy and is considered a curse (Lee, 2.
Teachers have tried alternative assessments (Alderson & Banerjee, 2.
, such as self-assessment or peer assessment, and more recently have resorted to automated scoring systems (Sun, 2017a.
Online Surve.
to alleviate teachersAo workloads.
However, all these types of assessment are not effective and efficient at the same time .
ee the introduction of articl.
, making a new form of assessing highly urgent.
TSCA is designed to draw on the strengths of these other assessments, hoping to tackle the challenges faced by Chinese teachers .
ee Table 1 for a comparison between TSCA and other types of assessmen.
Table 1.
The comparison of TSCA with other types of assessment Type of Assessment Teacher Who & How Teacher assesses and marks each individual Self Students revise their own writing.
Peer Students revise their peersAo writing.
Mainly after class, but can also be done in class Computer Computer software scores each draft and provides suggestions on linguistic errors.
After class
TSCA
Students and teacher work on the selected sample collaboratively in class.
Students revise their own or peersAo draft or resort to the computer software after class.
In class after class The present study lasted two academic semesters from September 2016 to June 2017.
It was conducted in the naturalistic settings of an EFL integrated course designed for second-year English majors in a university in mainland China.
The teacher, also the researcher, is a non-native English speaker who has been teaching at the university for 13 years.
The 24 students .
male, 18 femal.
were 18-19 years old with Chinese as their mother tongue.
Their English language proficiency was at an intermediate level.
The integrated English course is a required course for first- and second-year English majors.
It is composed of a series of theme-based units to enhance studentsAo comprehensive English competency.
The course is taught twice a week for 16 weeks per semester, with each class session lasting 90 minutes.
Students took listening, reading, speaking and writing courses in their first year and continued with these courses in their sophomore year.
The cohort had no prior experience of TSCA before this study.
When What After class Quality written work Teaching objectives quality of the where all the students revised their products after class.
These three phases completed a TSCA cycle.
Post-class revisions were a crucial phase of TSCA.
After the collaborative assessment, self-assessment or peer assessment after class .
uided by the TSCA focus in clas.
could be of great value for the students to reinforce what they learned.
Afterwards, the revised version was assessed by the automated scoring system where students could see their scores, read some general comments, and saved a record of their improvement.
The teacher could also recommend quality examples for students to read, which could serve as a great incentive for them to write more.
The 8 TSCA sessions are briefly described in Tables 2 and 3.
In the first semester, four theme-related after-class writing activities were assigned .
ne every 4 Three of them were related to themes covered in class, and one was related to a movie (See Table .
For instance.
Task 1 was an extension to the text AuWhat Makes a Global Language.
Ay The TSCA cycle started with the submission of the first draft and ended with the submission of the revised version .
ee Figure .
The TSCA was carried out after studentsAo first written drafts were collected.
Each TSCA in-class session lasted between 20-40 minutes, depending on the focus of assessment and schedule of the whole course.
In the second semester, four content-related writing assignments were given within 2 weeks under the same theme of Kindness and Indifference (See Table Each assignment was related to the content discussed in class without requiring any further extension.
Though students were not asked to revise their drafts, since they needed to hand in a new composition after each class, they had a chance to revise the first 3 pieces of written work in the last writing which included all the previous three (See Figure .
Instructional procedures TSCA was composed of three phases: pre-class, inclass, and post-class (Wen, 2016.
The pre-class phase was the preparation stage in which the teacher went through studentsAo work and selected and graded a AotypicalAo sample of written products to be assessed by students and the teacher collectively in class.
The inclass phase was the assessment stage where the teacher presented the selected work (SW), and students worked in groups of four to discuss and revise it, and then proceeded to share the revision with the whole class under the teacherAos guidance.
This stage incorporated AoteachingAy in AoassessingAo where students knew not only how to assess and but why assessing had to be done in this way.
The post-class phase was the revision stage Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 Table 2.
Summary of TSCA carried out in the first semester Assignment Focus of Linguistic features .
redicate ver.
Time 30 min No.
Do you think it is more important to fit in with your friends and community or stand out from the crowd and do something special? Write an article of 200 words on this topic.
Structure .
ntroductory 25 min Doctors have pondered the connection between mental and physical health for centuries.
Some researchers have found the healing power of emotion in curing the most serious diseases.
Others, including physicians, on the contrary, doubt the effect of emotion in health.
What is your opinion on this? Write an article of 200 words on this topic.
Titles 20 min The Controversy of Advertising Write an article of 200 words with the following title: The Negative Impacts of Advertising on Children Content upporting 45 min Theme Writing task What Makes a Global Language Write an article of 200 words with the following title: The Negative Effects of Having English as a Global Language Akeelah and the Bee .
Emotion
Health
Submission of the first
Submission of the revised draft
TSCA
Figure 1.
A TSCA cycle in the first semester Table 3.
Summary of TSCA carried out in the second semester Assignment Theme Focus of Structure .
Time No.
Write an article of 200 words explaining the reasons why people do not help in emergencies Language .
exical Ways to Overcome Bystander Effect Write an article of 200 words with the following title: Ways to Encourage People to Help Content .
opic The Kindness of Strangers Write an article of 350 words on the topic Helping in Emergencies covering the following points:
A Whether helping strangers out of good will is part of human nature or not A Reasons why many people hesitate to help in emergencies A Suggestions on how to encourage people to help Structure .
Content Writing task The two Write a description of one of the two cases (KittyAos/ YueyueAo.
in the tone of a bystander .
The Bystander Effect Kindness and Indifference Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 Figure 2 TSCA cycles in the second semester .
their revision, and .
their perception about the TSCA.
Students were assured that the interviews were for the teacher to diagnose and improve her teaching only and that their responses would have no effect on their final grade.
Last, after each cycle of TSCA, students wrote reflections .
n Chines.
on their writing.
TSCA and revision from four aspects: overall evaluation, gains, problems and suggestions.
The journals were tagged as student 1, 2, 3 etc.
, based on their student ID.
The teacher also reflected upon the classroom practice of TSCA, mainly from two aspects: the effectiveness and problems arising from it.
Data collection Classroom observations, teaching portfolios, semistructured interviews, and reflective journals were used to document the implementation of TSCA and the studentsAo and teacherAos views on it.
The use of these aimed to give a more comprehensive depiction of TSCA rather than draw conclusions based from one method Data collected included video and audio recordings of the class .
eacherAos instructions and studentsAo discussion.
, studentsAo written work .
irst draft and revised versio.
, interview recordings, and journals written by both the teacher and students.
First, in classroom observations, the TSCA sessions were audio-recorded .
otaled 120 minute.
and video-recorded .
otaled 125 minute.
in the first and second semesters respectively.
StudentsAo group discussions were also recorded .
pproximately 200 minute.
using their own mobile phones.
The teacher observed the class while teaching, watched the videos, and listened to the audios after class in order to see how well the students were engaged in the TSCA.
Second, in the first semester, two semi-structured interviews .
pproximately 100 minute.
were conducted in Chinese and recorded after the first and second TSCA These interviews were designed to probe the studentsAo experience of engaging in the TSCA in class and revision after class.
After the first writing task, 6 students were purposefully selected to be interviewed based on their revisions: 2 were from the Aowell-revisedAo group, 2 from the Aoill-revisedAo group, and 2 from the Aomediocre-revisedAo group.
After submission of the second writing task, the second interview was Eight students .
ther than the 6 who participated in the first intervie.
were randomly chosen and individually interviewed for approximately 7 minutes each.
The interviewees had the opportunity to reflect on several aspects of the TSCA, including: .
whether they could identify the problem in the selected sample.
FINDINGS Classroom practice What to assess There is a slew of varying problems in terms of language, content, and structure in studentsAo writing.
Table 4 lists the common problems that teachers might encounter in studentsAo written work.
As briefly outlined here, problems could be language-related such as grammatical mistakes or wrong word choices.
content of the writing was not clearly stated or and sentence structures within and between paragraphs could be very weak.
As a result, the communicative goals were not achieved in an effective In a reflection, 75% of the students reported that their ideas were not expressed in the way they wanted due to their limited language repertoire.
It was simply not practical to deal with the problems mentioned above all at once, but to focus on one of them at a time.
Studies .
Bitchener & Ferris 2.
showed that focused CF is more effective than unfocused CF.
Selective focused correction gives students precise feedback which directs them to address specific errors, helping them to not only edit the current essay and but to avoid or reduce such mistakes in the Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 future (Bitchener & Ferris 2.
Without such a clear focus, attention would scatter on multiple tasks and efficiency in learning would be lowered (Wen, 2016.
In order to decide what to focus on for assessing, the guiding principle of the 3Ps is suggested as follows.
The first is prominenceAiif more than 50% of the students have the same problem, then it is prominent enough to require attention.
In other words, if only 10% of students have the problem, it is not prominent enough to garner consideration in the TSCA.
The second is TSCA is not supplementary to learning.
instead, it is learning, aiming at the improvement of learnersAo language proficiency bit by bit.
Progress here does not necessarily mean a big leap forward.
Choosing a focus that helps tackle a AosmallAo problem or even raise consciousness is what TSCA aims to fulfill.
Assessment will not work well if the focus of attention is so big that it is beyond the control of the teacher.
Table 4.
Common problems in studentsAo writing Problems Language Grammar Vocabulary Forms A A Inaccurate Wrong Subject-predicate Wrong plurals Inaccurate tenses Run-on sentences Fragmentary Argument Content Supporting Not Not specific Not supportive Structure Inside the Between paragraphs paragraphs Not Not Not communication of economy, policy, and culture.
Therefore, the counties in the world have connected more tightly.
It also have an important influence on world peace.
The third is progression.
The order of the focus has to be progressive, starting from the basics first and then step-by-step working up to the next level.
This can be illustrated by my classroom practice.
Tables 1 and 2 outline the foci of assessment covered in an academic year: the predicate verb, introductory paragraph, titles, supporting evidence .
st semeste.
, the setting of a narrative story, lexical variety, topic sentences and transitions .
nd semeste.
It would not have been logical to work on transitions first if the students had not even mastered the Aotopic sentenceAo phase.
Similarly, it would not be right to focus on the body paragraph before the introductory paragraph.
Therefore, the order of what to focus on is important because each concept should be built on one another.
The 3Ps can be better illustrated by using the four cycles of TSCA in the first semester.
For the first TSCA, linguistic features, specifically the predicate verbs, were chosen to be the focus for 3 reasons.
Firstly, these errors frequently occurred in studentsAo writing.
The fact that 22 out of 24 compositions .
%) had this problem made it so prominent that it deserved attention.
Secondly, grammatical accuracy is the basic requirement of writing and the correct usage of main verbs in a sentence is fundamental to writing.
It is the simplest to be handled.
Thirdly, this focus is teachable since students are familiar with Aoerror correction,Ao and it could be dealt with successfully within a limited time.
The following sample is what was worked on in class.
How to Assess This section details how TSCA was carried out under the teacherAos guidance in class by using two examples.
To begin with, the teacher presented to the class a sample of studentsAo writing as shown in the left column of Table 5 but did not tell them what the problem was.
Students were first asked to make some comments on the good and weak points.
One student said.
Authe author is trying to lead you to the scene.
Ay Another student said.
Auit brings us a bright beginning, so the accident will be more shocking for us.
Ay However, they failed to find out the problem until the teacher stepped in and mentioned that this writer used 67 words to approach the scene and 29 words to describe the scene.
The objective was to describe the bystanderAos psychological reaction to an emergency, so the bulk of the writing should be devoted to the description of the incident, and the bystanderAos inner thought.
However, this student spent a lot of effort describing the setting of the story, which was too After the problem was identified, students were given a short time to revise it individually first, and then worked in groups for a better revision.
When they were ready, they volunteered to share their ideas with the whole class.
The teacherAos version was then presented/revealed .
ee Table 5, right colum.
, with the setting of the story cut down to one sentence .
, once again emphasizing that it is not advisable for the setting to take too much space.
English has become an important communication tool for people all over the world.
Everyone are able to understand each other because of the tool.
It no doubt that the tool has promoted greatly the Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 Table 5.
A sample of studentsAo writing (Setting of the Stor.
and its revision The Sample ItAos a lovely afternoon though nearly sunset.
I was walking home like usual after hanging out with my old friends.
And I unconsciously glanced a little girl, having fun with herself just besides the street, and it is a narrow At that moment.
I was curious about what she was doing, so I looked directly at her while I was walking.
Before I found out whatAos she doing, the crash happened.
She seems did not notice that van was coming for her, and all of a sudden, she laid on the ground, without any movementA The Revised .
eacherAos versio.
On a late afternoon.
I was walking home on a narrow street like usual after hanging out with my old friends.
A toddler was waddling in front of me, not realizing that a van was coming, and all of a sudden, she was knocked down by the The driver hesitated for a second and drove AoindifferentAo or AopeopleAo were overused.
Each sample was shown on PowerPoint slides one at a time.
After discussion, students shared their revision with the rest of the class.
In their try-out revision, they simply deleted the word Aoindifferent.
Ao As a teachable moment, the teacher highlighted that to achieve Aolexical variety,Ao they could either use synonyms like AoapatheticAo or AocallousAo in this case, or vary the forms of the same word such as Aoindifference.
Ao The second example of TSCA elaborated here is lexical variety.
When explaining the reasons why people do not help in emergencies, students used the words Aopeople,Ao Aohelp,Ao and AoindifferentAo repeatedly to such a degree that the effectiveness was compromised and the alternative expressions learned in class such as Auapathetic people.
offer assistanceAy were not used! This problem was brought to the studentsAo attention through the two samples as shown in Table 6 where the words Table 6.
A sample of overuse of a certain word Sample A And indifferent people is indifferent to others, because he is indifferent to their own too, so they do not know what is the meaning of Problem Overuse of the word AoindifferentAo StudentsAo Revision And people are indifferent to others, because they are cruel to themselves too, so they do not know what is the meaning of life.
TeacherAos Revision AIndifferent /Apathetic people are unsympathetic to their indifference prevents them from knowing the meaning of life.
students made can be clearly seen.
In one studentAos (Student .
second writing, the word AopeopleAo was used a great deal .
eft column.
Table .
, but this was improved in Task 4, in which AopeopleAo was replaced by Aobystanders,Ao Aoonlookers,Ao and AopassersbyAo .
ee right column of Table .
Similar improvements can also be found in student 12Aos work.
After the second and third TSCA covering lexical variety and how to write good topic sentences, he changed his topic sentences by adding more details to make them clearer.
His original Auto be the first oneAy was rather vague.
However, after TSCA, he revised it to Auto be the first one to offer assistanceAy which was much It is noteworthy to mention that he avoided the repetitive use of the word help in the same paragraph by using Auoffer assistanceAy and Aulend a handAy instead.
StudentsAo development in writing can be illustrated in student 20Aos revision of the fourth task.
After the last TSCAAiusing transitions to link paragraphsAiwas implemented, students came to realize the necessity and AustrategyAy to make their arguments flow by summarizing the content of the preceding paragraph before moving on to guide the reader to focus on what to look for next.
In the first draft, paragraphs 2 and 3 were two AounrelatedAo paragraphs.
However, this was corrected in the revised draft by using a subordinate clause led by Ayalthough,Ay thus linking the main ideas of the previous paragraph to the next one.
It is worthwhile to mention that when the student uploaded the revision online, the automated scoring system commented: AuThe author achieved fluency by means of some simple cohesive devices.
Ay The teacher guided the discussion and the revision along the way.
In the revision phase, the focus was not only on how to revise it, but on reasons why it needed to be revised in the way it was.
Students needed to know the underlying cause of the problems before they could identify them and proceed to edit their own work all by Students played an indispensable role in TSCA.
They thought about or edited the selected sample alone first and then engaged in group discussion to figure out the problem in the sample and discussed how to revise it in the later phase.
Their engagement was constantly guided by the teacher.
After revising the first sample, more practice was provided related to the focus.
When dealing with the lexical repetition, the following sample with the overuse of AopeopleAo was selected for them to revise in class.
So why people do not help in emergencies, maybe there are so many reasons for themselves.
Some people would say they have no ability to save people, and they also do not know how to rescue people, because they are not professional that they cannot lend a hand easily.
And some people would think about what if the person that they helped accuse them on the contrary.
DISCUSSION
The effectiveness of TSCA StudentsAo final products The last writing activity covered all the previous three tasks assigned before .
ee Figure .
By comparing the final product with their first draft, the progress that Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 Table 7.
A comparison of written work before and after TSCA Before TSCA Task 2 Why people donAot help in emergencies (ExcerptAiStudent .
Third, people are always do what other people do.
When a group of people witness the emergency together, it is more difficult to break the order.
All the people are waiting the first one to raise helping hand.
They will consider: If other people donAot do that, why should I be the first? Maybe it is a trap.
TSCA
Lexical variety Task 3 Ways to Encourage People to Help (ExcerptAi Student .
First of all, to be the first one.
As for this part, there is a rule that everybody will do what the others do.
So if he doesnAot help, they will not too.
Then, it is someone to be the first person that will encourage people to give a hand.
What's more, to make the laws.
It means that the government will stand at the rescuers' side by making laws.
Topic sentence Task 4 Helping in emergencies (ExcerptAiStudent .
(Paragraph .
There are many reasons why bystanders are reluctant to raise eyebrows in emergenciesA (Paragraph .
I think that kindness of strangers still shine brightness in our daily life A Transitions StudentsAo perceptions In studentsAo reflections, all the students spoke highly of TSCA and agreed that this method was a good way to pinpoint weak points and improve their writing.
They reported that they formed a new perception of AuselfassessmentAy and Auself-revisionAy and felt much was gained from TSCA.
By the end of the first semester, students recognized the weaknesses and problems in their They were conscious of their own mistakes, and it is precisely this realization that is the prerequisite for Eleven students, accounting for 46%, explicitly mentioned their awareness of Auprevalent problems which were often overlooked beforeAy:
After TSCA Task 4 Helping in emergencies (ExcerptAiStudent WhatAos more, bystanders are always doing what other people do.
When a group of onlookers witness the emergency together, it is more difficult to break the order.
All the passers-by are waiting the first one to raise helping hand.
They will consider: If other people donAot to that, why should I be the first? Maybe it is a trap.
Task 4 Helping in emergencies (ExcerptAiStudent First of all, to be the first one to offer assistance.
There is a rule that everybody will do what the others do.
So if he doesnAot help, they will not too.
Then, it is someone to be the first person that will encourage people to help.
What's more, to make the laws to protect those who lend a hand.
means that the government will stand at the rescuersAo side by making laws, which is protecting the rights of rescuers.
Revised Task 4 (ExcerptAiStudent .
(Paragraph .
There are many reasons why bystanders are reluctant to raise eyebrows in emergenciesA (Paragraph .
Although having sufficient reasons for bystanders hesitating to give a hand, the kindness of strangers still shine brightness in our daily lifeA no room for me to improve.
After 4 TSCAs.
I came to know that good writing comes from constant editing and writing ability can be enhanced through revision.
(Student .
Knowing weaknesses in writing and redrafting are a must to enhance learning.
The cognition of problems leads to correction, which in turn leads to improvement.
Twenty students .
%) submitted their revised draft to the online automated assessing tool after an average of 4 After a year of classroom practice, all the students .
%) reported that TSCA is conducive to writing In addition to awareness and the change in their habit, students also acknowledged their gains from group discussion and the teacherAos instruction.
Gains from peer discussion: A third of the class .
wrote in their reflection that they benefited greatly when discussing with their peers.
In the group discussion, students are able to know other view points and different opinions which in turn spark ideas of their own.
For instance, student 5 AAfter TSCA.
I am aware of these problems.
Every time before submission.
I would read it over and checked if I avoided making mistakes mentioned by the teacherA (Student .
This contrasted with data from studentsAo first I have no habit of revising my writing.
Most often than not.
I would hand it in without reading it for a second time, just like what my other classmates would doA (Student .
I think the discussion in the classroom is also very effective.
Everyone has their own point of view.
Through the discussion.
I have broadened my own thinking.
This Auno-revisionAy practice was replaced by Aumultiple-revisionAy practice by the end of the semester.
Six students .
%) expressed the importance of AI revised my writing to the degree that there is Student 8 echoed:
Discussing my writing with my classmates.
Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 especially with the ones who are better than me, made me understand how they organize their sentences or even the whole passage.
came to know how they bring their thoughts together to make a logical argument, which is a great help to me.
content of assessment according to the time limits in class and how well students respond to it.
Teachers provide the professional assistance in TSCA, which is more advantageous than self-assessment or peer TSCA created an active and dynamic classroom atmosphere.
Listening to their peersAo revision, students could reflect on whether their own ideas were correct or not.
On top of that, after they were familiar with procedures and objectives of assessment, a growing number of students were stimulated by their peers, switching from AulistenersAy to Auparticipants.
Ay This changed the classroom dynamics as everyone served as AuscaffoldsAy for everyone else.
CONCLUSION
Contributions of the study This study made an attempt to address the challenges in assessing studentsAo written work in a relatively large class and in doing so has advanced the assessment research in three aspects.
First, in its theoretical contribution, it proposed a new form of assessment.
TSCA, so as to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of assessing.
In addition, the study strived to apply TSCA to classroom teaching, showing how it could be done in practice.
Lastly, there are pedagogical implications for teachers who may want to try TSCA out in their classrooms.
The theoretical, practical and pedagogical contributions of this study have hopefully furthered the research in the assessment field and classroom practice.
To date, numerous studies have investigated and compared the effectiveness of different forms of assessment: teacher assessment, self-assessment, peer assessment, and machine assessment, but little attention has been paid to their incorporation with classroom practices, let alone the integration of these forms into one holistic assessment to maximize effectiveness.
The present study proposed TSCA to organize and balance the different modes of assessment and was implemented in a classroom setting with peer assessment and automated scoring systems as a supplement after class.
The clearly-defined pre-class, in-class, and post-class procedures serve as the basis for its application in natural or authentic classrooms.
The initial classroom practice helped further develop the theory by adding guidelines and strategies to guarantee effective Based on a one-year reflective practice, this article proposed a set of guidelines for selecting a focus to assess and illustrated how TSCA was carried out to ensure that assessment is for the purpose of learning.
StudentsAo progress could be seen in the first and second drafts of the last writing task.
One focus at a time proved to be useful in directing studentsAo attention on one point.
It was relatively easier and more beneficial for them to pay attention to one issue alone when As to how to carry out a focused in-class assessment, a teacher followed the procedures of problem-identification and sample-revision with necessary instructions.
This was done by always encouraging students to figure out the problems and work out the solutions on their own.
Assistance was provided only when needed.
Pedagogical implications for teachers also emerge in connection with studentsAo reflection and interview An in-depth analysis of these revealed that the Gains from teacherAos instruction: One of the crucial features of TSCA is the teacherAos From determining a focus to selecting typical samples, from guiding the students to realize the weaknesses in the sample to leading them to work collaboratively, the teacher guaranteed the effectiveness of TSCA.
Thirteen students .
ccounting for 54%) mentioned the important role of the teacher in their AuIn class, my teacher pointed out some problems of our compositions.
I was being very AuluckyAy since those problems were also After the teacherAos instruction and my own revision in line with her instruction.
I felt I improved a lotAy .
AuI realized why I made such mistakes as Auinappropriate titlesAy Auillogical sentencesAy after the teacherAos explanationAy .
AuIn class, my teacher pointed out the issue of repetitive use of words, such as people, help.
It left me a very deep impression, since it is also my problem.
After assessment.
I revised my writing and felt that I improved a lot in expressing my ideas.
And.
IAom also aware of the lengthy setting nowAy (Student .
Although TSCA aims to reduce teachersAo workload, it does not decrease their responsibility (Wen, 2016.
In TSCA, teachers are Audecision-makersAy as well as Auscaffolders.
Ay On the one hand, the teacher determines the focus of the assessment according to studentsAo proficiency level and their written work.
On the other hand, it is the teacher who dynamically adjusts the pace and Copyright A 2018.
IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN:2301-9468 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8.
September 2018 students held predominantly positive attitudes towards TSCA.
They confirmed that TSCA in class provided them with an opportunity to discuss and share ideas with each other which facilitated the revision process after class.
Moreover, learners started to realize that a good piece of writing took multiple revisions, and they were willing to make the effort to rewrite their essays more than one time.
However, learning is not a linear process, so teachers cannot expect students to acquire fully something new or to correct their errors with just a one-time TSCA learnersAo consciousness of the problem so that they can bear it in mind when completing the next writing task.
Moreover, teachers can further integrate assessing with teaching, reinforcing the teaching by assessing and reinforcing assessing by further teaching.
In this way, learning and improvement in writing will come about as a result.
REFERENCES