How Students Choose ESL Writing Assessment Prompts :: Teaching Education Writing Essays

How Students Choose ESL Writing Assessment Prompts This article, reporting on the research done by Margo Glew and Charlene Polio of Michigan State University, examines writing assessment in a different way than most research on the topic. The goal of this research was to look into how an ESL student chooses prompts for a writing exam when offered a choice. Polio and Glew not only investigate how they choose, but how long it takes each student to choose and if they should even be given a choice at all. There are numerous suggestions through research that provide possible answers to the questions at hand. Some say students tend to choose shorter questions, or questions placed first or second on the list. This research was inconclusive however. Polio and Glew argue that â€Å"the primary reason for offering students a choice of prompts is the belief that students should be allowed to choose a prompt that will enable them to display their best writing† (37). This applies especially to ESL students who come from a much larger variety of backgrounds than to regular English students. However, â€Å"there is no evidence that when students choose a prompt, they choose one that allows them to display their best writing skills† (38). It is also pointed out though, that giving choices decreases reliability, adding to the already difficult process of fairly scoring written tests. Some even think that choosing wastes time. The researchers thought that looking at how the students chose a prompt might shed light on whether or not they should have a choice. They used 26 students and through testing, video taping and interviewing, they found that most students looked at all prompts before choosing and that 21 out of 26 students choose their topic in under two minutes. â€Å"The median time before students began writing was less than 60 seconds, with a range of 18 to 182 seconds.† (42). Out of all 26 students, only one student started writing with one prompt and started over with a second. Through the interviews they discovered that 22 students chose a prompt based on â€Å"perceived familiarity or background knowledge.† Proving true that having a choice should increase their ability to display their best writing proving false the idea that having a choice is a waste of time.