An integrated approach to achievement: measuring the development of writing skills in Kurdish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL)

Abdulmajeed, Haveen Muhamad (2017). An integrated approach to achievement: measuring the development of writing skills in Kurdish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is a contribution to the field of learner corpus studies. It compares a number of different measures of accuracy and complexity in second language writing, applying those measures to a sample of 308 essays written by Kurdish university students majoring in English in three schools in Iraqi Kurdistan (at two years of study: third year and fourth year). It proposes an innovative method for measuring correctness, and integrates a number of different measures of accuracy into an Integrated Approach to Achievement. It first starts by applying the method of traditional error analysis to a sample of the data collected, and then as a result the research makes recommendations for measuring ‘correctness’ instead of concentrating on the analysis of errors. It then operationalizes those recommendations, proposing an innovative method of assessment of accuracy in L2 writing by assessing ‘correctness’ as a replacement for the measurement of error using standard methods of analysis (the T-unit and clause-based correctness analysis). As a third attempt it proposes a new method of analysis that takes various units into account and hence called the various-units-based correctness analysis. After that it brings together all the measures of accuracy in a novel and integrated assessment method called an Integrated Approach to Achievement (IAA). The thesis also uses various measures of syntactic complexity, including phrasal complexity. For measuring lexical complexity a recently developed program called the Lexical Complexity Analyzer (LCA) is used. The findings are important for both English writing pedagogy and assessment.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):