Factors Affecting Chinese Raters' Rating of High-Stakes English Exam Essays

高风险英语考试作文评分员影响因素研究（英文）

This study consists of two questionnaire surveys conducted in two stages to investigate factors that high-stakes exam essay raters believe to affect their rating behavior. Raters were all university Chinese teachers of English majors. Seventy-three participants in stage one and 75 in stage two responded to the same questionnaire. Both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used in data analysis. Results showed that there were generally six broad factors interfering with the rating process： rating scale, rater training, rating supervision, rater characteristics, eye-catching text features and rating condition. The interaction of those factors reflected the tension between the constraints executed by the test institution and raters＇ own knowledge and understanding of essay rating. This study may shed light on measures taken to improve essay rating quality.

该研究包括两个阶段的问卷,旨在调查高风险英语考试作文评分员影响因素,所有调查者均为大学英语专业老师。第一阶段有73名受试,第二阶段有75名受试,两个阶段相隔一年,采用同样的调查问卷。数据分析将探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析相结合。结果显示有6个主要因素影响到评分过程:评分量表,评分员培训,评分监督,评分员特征,易识别文本特征,评分环境。这些因素之间的相互影响反映了来自考试机构的约束和评分员自身对作文评分的知识和理解之间的冲突。该研究将为考试机构采取措施提高作文评分质量提供参考。