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 o...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.展开更多
基金supported by the Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China for Humanity and Social Science Research(15YJC740004)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China(16LZUJBWZY032+1 种基金LZUJBWZY069)Fund of School of Foreign Languages of LZU(16LZUWYXSTD002)
文摘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.
