Development and validation of an automated essay scoring engine to assess students’ development across program levels

As English as a second language (ESL) populations in English-speaking countries continue to grow steadily, the need for methods of accounting for students’ academic success in college has become increasingly self-evident. Holistic assessment practices often lead to subjective and vague descriptions of learner language level, such as beginner, intermediate, advanced (Ellis & Larsen-Freeman, 2006). Objective measurements (e.g., the number of error-free T-units) used in second language production and proficiency research provide precise specifications of students’ development (Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012; Norris & Ortega, 2009; Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim, 1998); however, the process of obtaining a profile of a student’s development by using these objective measures requires many resources, especially time. In the ESL writing curriculum, class sizes are frequently expanding and instructors’ workloads are often high (Kellogg, Whiteford, & Quinlan, 2010); thus, time is at its limits, making the accountability for students’ development difficult to manage. The purpose of this research is to develop and validate an automated essay scoring (AES) engine to address the need for resources that provide precise descriptions of students’ writing development. Development of the engine utilizes measures of complexity, accuracy, fluency, and functionality (CAFF), which are guided by Complexity Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics. These measures were built into computer algorithms by using a hybrid approach to natural language processing (NLP), which includes the statistical parsing of student texts and rule-based feature detection. Validation follows an interpretive argument-based approach to demonstrate the adequacy and appropriateness of AES scores. Results provide a mixed set of validity evidence both for and against the use of CAFFite measures for assessing development. Findings are meaningful for continued development and expansion of the AES engine into a tool that provides individualized diagnostic feedback for theory- and data-driven teaching and learning. The results also underscore the possibilities of using computerized writing assessment for measuring, collecting, analyzing, and reporting data about learners and their contexts to understand and optimize learning and teaching

Automated scoring of writing

For decades, automated essay scoring (AES) has operated behind the scenes of major standardized writing assessments to provide summative scores of students’ writing proficiency (Dikli in J Technol Learn Assess 5(1), 2006). Today, AES systems are increasingly used in low-stakes assessment contexts and as a component of instructional tools in writing classrooms. Despite substantial debate regarding their use, including concerns about writing construct representation (Condon in Assess Writ 18:100–108, 2013; Deane in Assess Writ 18:7–24, 2013), AES has attracted the attention of school administrators, educators, testing companies, and researchers and is now commonly used in an attempt to reduce human efforts and improve consistency issues in assessing writing (Ramesh and Sanampudi in Artif Intell Rev 55:2495–2527, 2021). This chapter introduces the affordances and constraints of AES for writing assessment, surveys research on AES effectiveness in classroom practice, and emphasizes implications for writing theory and practice.Englis

What is identity? ELL and bilinguals' views on the role of accent

Many researchers and theorists have proposed a connection between accent and identity (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin, & Griner, 2010; Ochs, 1993; Setter and Jenkins, 2005). Some, however, have gone beyond this, indicating that students fear obtaining a native speaker accent. “To speak an L2 like a native is to take a drastic step into the unknown, accompanied by the unconscious fear of no return...” (Daniels, 1995, p. 6). Yet, this comment may strike many teachers and researchers as surprising because as Sobkowiak points out, “in my whole teaching career I have not met a [student] who would not like to sound like a native, or who would fear to step on this ‘road of no return’” (2005, p. 144). Perhaps the difference in perspective can be explained by a difference in language learning group, those that have successfully spoken English like a native and those that have not. This research study examines the perceptions of English Language Learners (ELLs) and English speaking bilinguals. Subjects participated in a semi-structured interview to discuss their experiences interacting with others and their perceptions of accent and identity. Findings from the interviews suggest that these two groups have very different ideas about accent and identity. Results from this study provide insights into the possible misconceptions and assumptions that underscore our work as educators and researchers and can hopefully be used to inform future teaching in the field of pronunciation.Englis

A Sunday Afternoon

This garment was a collaborative project that explored the integration of 2D and 3D design and the communication of tacit knowledge between co-designers. This garment was inspired from the 1884 painting by George Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Mobile truck entrepreneurship: motivations and strategies of non-food mobile retail truck entrepreneurs in the United States

This dissertation set out to explore the emerging phenomenon of modern mobile retail trucks opening for business across the United States starting in the early 2010s. Thirty-one participants were interviewed, and the data collected was used to glean a further understanding of who mobile retailers are and the key motivations drawing these individuals to alternative retail spaces on wheels. This study was conducted using qualitative methods and thirty-one participants participated in in-depth interviews. A grounded theory approach was used to inform data interpretation and allowed the themes to emerge directly from the data. The data sorted participants into four cohorts, just out of school (10), career shift (9), escapist (8), and retired hobbiest (4). Four primary motivations emerged among participants, need for flexibility, desire for autonomy, creativity, and social interaction. All of these motivations were representative across the four cohorts; however, each cohort emphasized the motivations in different combinations. All the participants had access to high-speed internet and relied on smartphones for many daily business activities. This study can offer contributions to both academia and the retail industry giving insight into this emerging retail venue. Study limitations include the short duration of the study and the small number of participants, which does not allow for the data to be generalized across all mobile retailers. This study offers a preliminary exploratory view of the phenomenon of modern mobile retail emerging across the United States.Includes bibliographical references

A case study of the GARROBO Project

"December 2013.""A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri--Columbia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Sciences."Thesis supervisor: Dr. Jana Hawley.This study explores the changes in the social of the GARROBO project trainees after they join the career-training program. Bebbingtons' (1999) theory of capitals explained how possessing different types of capital or assets serve as a vehicle to achieve a sustainable livelihood. He emphasized social capital, or the ability to network with others to gain access to new opportunities may be the most important type of capital (Bebbington, 1999, pp. 2021-2023). Chambers explains that the poor people in developing counties need an outsider to kick start change, "The poorer rural people, it is said, must help themselves; but this, trapped as they are, they often cannot do. The initiative, in enabling them better to help themselves, lies with outsiders who have more power and resources and most of whom are neither rural nor poor" (Chambers, 1983, pp. 2-3). The purpose was to determine if the GARROBO Project model aided trainees' to gaining access to the necessary resources and knowledge needed to achieve a sustainable livelihood. The model of the GARROBO project is unique. There is a reciprocal relationship between TexOps, an apparel factory, and the GARROBO Project, a career and life skills training program. In exchange for an elevated social image TexOps offered the resources, connections, and the conditions needed for the GARROBO Project to operate. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants for the qualitative case study. Data was collected through interviews, photo elicitation interviews and, participant observation. Implications of this study are for coordinators of career training programs and other facilitators, factory owners or other companies interested in development of similar programs, and academia. Limitations of the study were study length, language barriers and reliability of participants.Includes bibliographical references (pages 60-62)

Effects of DDL technology on genre learning

To better understand the promising effects of data-driven learning (DDL) on language learning processes and outcomes, this study explored DDL learning events enabled by the Research Writing Tutor (RWT), a web-based platform containing an English language corpus annotated to enhance rhetorical input, a concordancer that was searchable for rhetorical functions, and an automated writing evaluation engine that generated rhetorical feedback. Guided by current approaches to teaching academic writing (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2001; Swales, 2004) and the knowledge-telling/knowledge-transformation model of Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987), we set out to examine whether and how direct corpus uses afforded by RWT impact novice native and non-native writers’ genre learning and writing improvement. In an embedded mixed-methods design, written responses to DDL tasks and writing progress from first to last drafts were recorded from 23 graduate students in separate one-semester courses at a US university. The qualitative and quantitative data sets were used for within-student, within-group, and between-group comparisons—the two independent variables for the latter being course section and language background. Our findings suggest that exploiting technology-mediated corpora can foster novice writers’ exploration and application of genre conventions, enhancing development of rhetorical, formal, and procedural aspects of genre knowledge

Teaching research writing with disciplinary corpora

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