Scoring Second Language Spoken and Written Performance provides a
useful introduction for graduate students, researchers, test developers,
other practitioners and teachers to a topic which has dominated the
field of language assessment over many decades.
Speaking and writing effectively are widely recognised as important
skills in many contexts and for many purposes - personal, educational
and professional. Because these skills are considered important in
second and foreign language learning contexts, they are often included
in performance assessments. The scoring of such performances is,
however, a complex undertaking and has attracted much attention, in both
first and second language learning contexts. The increasing use of
automated scoring systems has added to this complexity in recent years.
It is therefore all the more surprising that there is no single
available book that provides an overview of this area. This volume draws
together the latest literature on the topic of scoring second language
performances. It focuses on issues relating to rater-mediated
assessments and sets out consideration in relation to automated scoring
and other technology-based systems which are increasingly used in this
field.