The Difference in Formative Writing Assessment Procedures among Novice and Experienced Teachers

The present research investigates the associations among teacher assessments for foreign language (L2) writing and relevant teaching experiences of L2 writing. This study also seeks to address teachers employment of formative evaluations for lessons of General Studies amidst teaching practices, teacher formative evaluation perceptions upon carrying out formative evaluations for General Studies, the prevalent approaches of formative evaluations, the accordance of evaluation methods with learning tasks, the intervention of teachers upon receiving feedback from their students, issues in classes and student feedback. Thirty English teachers from a language institute in Iran assessed 10 essays by students and validated their marks using three qualitative statements. Findings of this study indicate the lower marks of the writing teachers with the most experience compared to the teachers of less experience for four of the ten total essays. Upon conducting an analysis for the qualitative statements pertaining to the four essays, it was shown that experienced teachers submitted more negative comments on issues such as general language, ideas, language fluency, and general organization. Essentially, despite various experiences in instructing composition, such groups of teachers may be similar or different in terms of other variables that may contribute to divergences and similarities for their ratings.