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Investigating Writing Sub-skills in Testing English as a Foreign Language: A Structural Equation Modeling Study

This is not to say that this is not a linguistics text. It is, and linguistics permeates every single page. But the difference is that it is not trying to tell you how to become a linguist – and what things to get excited about – but what linguistic theory has to offer for the understanding of the English language. Many introductory text books in syntax use language data as a way of justifying the theory, so what they are. | The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language Investigating Writing Sub-skills in Testing English as a Foreign Language A Structural Equation Modeling Study Vahid Aryadoust National Institute of Education Singapore arya2004v@yahoo.com Abstract This study investigates the validity of a writing model proposed as the underlying structure of the writing skill in English as a foreign language EFL . Four writing prompts were administered to 178 Iranian EFL learners. The scripts were then scored according to writing benchmarks similar to the IELTS Writing criteria but narrower in scope. After inter- and intra-rater reliability analysis a three-factor model was posited for validation. Structural modeling of the sub-skills revealed the two sub-skills of Idea Arrangement and Communicative Quality are psychometrically inseparable but the Vocabulary and Grammar sub-skills proved to have good measurement properties. Using parcel indicators a two-factor model was then evaluated which had the best fit and parsimony. The researcher concludes Idea Arrangement and Communicative Quality appear to have similar conceptual and theoretical foundations and should be considered the elements of one measuring criterion. Further research is required to support this finding. 1 Introduction Measurable sub-skills of second language L2 essay writing in analytic approaches have been extensively researched to the present day. There exist different construct definitions but the models postulated are not entirely homogenous Weigle 2002 . Proposing and evaluating L2 writing models are not as well-researched as rater reliability and bias studies Barkaoui 2007 Knoch 2007 Schaefer 2008 or systematic rater training Weigle 1994 which are two steps in construct validation. In this light the present study seeks to investigate the underlying structure of the writing skill and its measurable sub-skills. Writing in an L2 is a complicated process which may be similar to writing in first language L1 in