Crossing Borders, Writing Texts, Being Evaluated

This book provides critical perspectives on issues relating to writing norms and assessment, as well as writing proficiency development, and suggests that scholars need to both carefully examine testing regimes and develop research-informed perspectives on tests and testing practices. In this way schools, institutions of adult education and universities can better prepare learners with differing cultural experiences to meet the challenges. The book brings together empirical studies from diverse geographical contexts to address the crossing of literacy borders, with a focus on academic genres and practices. Most of the studies examine writing in countries where the norms and expectations are different, but some focus on writing in a new discourse community set in a new discipline. The chapters shed light on commonalities and differences between these two situations with respect to the expectations and evaluations facing the writers. They also consider the extent to which the norms that the writers bring with them from their educational backgrounds and own cultures are compromised in order to succeed in the new educational settings.

This thought-provoking book is truly crossing borders in its themes, locations, and researcher profiles. It shows convincingly the range and span of the linguistic and social issues that writers from diverse backgrounds face when entering new contexts and facing new circumstances and genres. A must-read for all those teaching and evaluating writing., The authors know firsthand what it means to cross borders and struggle to master the writing conventions of a new language and community to become fully participating members of that community. Their research elucidates the multifaceted challenges that people in this situation face, and offers valuable insights into how these challenges can be addressed and overcome., Every chapter concludes with recommendations for heightened awareness and modifications to pedagogical practice, so the book will be a valuable resource for anyone engaged in teaching or assessing academic writing, and particularly those involved in designing writing assessments., ...this concise but informative volume adds to our understanding of the various challenges L2 learners face in academic writing and the actions required to help them succeed academically [...] The volume successfully showed the challenges faced by FL/L2 students in crossing the borders of academic Western literacy conventions [...] this book is highly recommended to writing instructors, postgraduate supervisors, researchers, raters and administrators interested in developing the academic writing of learners of additional languages.

Anne Golden is an Emeritus Professor of Second Language Acquisition at MultiLing, the University of Oslo, Norway.Lars Anders Kulbrandstad is an Emeritus Professor of Norwegian at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and a Senior Professor of Swedish as a Second Language at Karlstad University, Sweden.Lawrence Jun Zhang is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand.