Lexical sophistication is an important component of writing proficiency. New lexical indices related to range, n-gram frequency, psycholinguistic word information, academic language, polysemy, and hypernymy have yielded new insights into the construct of lexical sophistication and its relationship with second language (L2) acquisition and writing. For example, recent studies have suggested that...

The objectives of this study were (a) to examine the writing performance of L2 learners on the level-specific tasks based on Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and (b) to study the likely difference between students' self-assessed level of writing and those reported by raters. The study was conducted with 138 Iranian students at BA and MA levels in Alborz Institute of Higher Educatio...

the purpose of this research was to analyze efl writing tasks in two of the most popular english for speakers of other languages (esol) exam preparation courses in iran, namely ielts and toefl. having collected the criteria of writing task appropriateness in light of the process-oriented approach to writing instruction, we asked 60 learner participants to rate efl writing tasks in 3 ielts and 3...

The difficulty of assessing the writing skill is well known. Different testing facets seem to affect the result of assessing the writing skill. In addition to the writer’s ability, the topic of the writing task, and methods of rating may contribute to the writer’s score. In this study, 50 EFL learners wrote four different types of writing tasks (convincing, describing, instructing, and explaini...

Among the most innovative features of the TOEFL® Internet-based test (TOEFL iBT) are the addition of a speaking measure and a revised writing measure consisting of two writing tasks. The speaking and writing measures include both independent and integrated tasks. Independent tasks require test takers to talk or write about their personal opinions or experiences. Integrated tasks require the use...

This study investigated the quality of metacognition at its inter-individual level, i.e., socially-shared metacognition, across two collaborative writing tasks of different difficulty levels among a cohort of Iranian EFL learners.  Moreover, it examined the correlation between the individual and the social modes of metacognition in writing.  The analysis of think-aloud protocols of a number of ...