Then Impact of Automated Essay Sscoring (AES) for Improving English Language Learner's Essay Writing

The growing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) and globalized communications are factors making English writing instruction a critical educational concern in many countries around the world. While empirical research findings and language learning theories have suggested forms of instructive interactions for effective writing instruction, the considerable amount of time and effort required for this kind of feedback is daunting to instructors and difficult to maintain. One alternative to human feedback, the Automated Essay Scoring (AES) has gained the attention of educators as a formative assessment tool, providing assistive writing resources to teachers and students. This study examined the impact of AES on improving English writing quality across different levels of integration (No-AES, Optional-AES, and Integrated-AES ) in two English learning contexts (ESL and EFL). A total of 172 ELL students participated in this study. To examine the effectiveness of the intervention, students' essays, student surveys, instructor interviews, and course documents were collected and analyzed. The results showed the type of AES integration significantly influenced the quality of an essay in terms of holistic quality and accuracy. The Integrated-AES group showed better performance in improving the quality of essays. The findings suggest that AES can effectively assist students' writing when it is integrated with writing instruction as a formative assessment tool. Based on the findings, implications for writing instruction are suggested to teachers and administrators who are interested in AES integration, in addition to suggestions for AES development. Instructional Technology Curry School of Education University of Virginia Charlottesvi lle, Virginia APPROVAL OF THE DISSERTA nON This dissertation, "The Impact of Automated Essay Scoring (AES) for Improving English Language Learner's Essay Writing" has been approved by the Graduate Faculty of the Curry School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Gleri'L. Bull, Ph.D., Co-Chair. V=-J2 William A. Ferster, Ph.t( Co-Chair Sara Dexter, Ph.D. DEDICATION This dissertation is lovingly dedicated to My parents, AmGil and JumSoon Choi, My wife, Myung hee Jun, and My children, Sungha and Hankyul.

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