Who's marking my essay? The assessment of non-native-speaker and native-speaker undergraduate essays in an Australian higher education context

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4096887
AutoresSally Roisin O''Hagan, Sally Roisin O'Hagan, Sally O’hagan (0000-0002-7561-0458, The University of Melbourne, autor correspondente), Gillian Wigglesworth (0000-0003-2753-5200, The University of Melbourne)
Ano2015
Volume40
Fascículo9
Páginas1729-1747
Data de publicação2015-10-21
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoStudies in Higher Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03075079.2014.896890
OpenAlexW2082773346
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas62

Assessment is a crucial factor in higher education where marks gained can determine future study and career options. Increasing student numbers, and an increasing proportion of international students, raises concerns regarding marking practices, and whether the same criteria are used to mark both native-speaker (NS) and non-native-speaker (NNS) essays. This paper examines the essays of five native and five non-native speakers written in English for the same undergraduate subject. The essays were marked by 10 experienced assessors. Results reveal distinct differences in the approaches taken by the assessors resulting in, in some cases, the same NS essay being awarded every grade level from the highest possible grade, to a failure. Similar results were found in the NNS essays although the variability was somewhat less. The paper examines reasons for this and discusses its implications for assessment in higher education and for potential approaches which might mitigate against this outcome

Ethnology · Higher education · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Native american · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · History · Psychology · Student Assessment and Feedback