Assessment behavior between Raters with and without Overseas Education Background in Oral English Assessment. A comparison

This study conducted a comparison of assessment behavior between nonnative raters with overseas educational backgrounds (NNSWOEB) and nonnative speakers without overseas educational backgrounds (NNSW/OOEB) in an oral English assessment.

The 8 participants, all nonnative speakers, are divided by their overseas educational background into two categories. Each category, consisting of 4 raters, are required to rate 28 English Education major students' oral English samples. Data analysis was conducted using Minifac (Facets) Rasch software. Results of the analysis revealed that a: there is significant difference in severity between NNSWOEB raters and NNSW/OOEB raters. b: NNSW/OOEB raters are more severe than NNSWOEB raters in every rating criteria except criteria of pronunciation. c: NNSWOEB raters have different rating concept to rating scales with NNSW/OOEB raters.

Study findings add support to previous research that has demonstrated nonnative speakers or speakers without overseas educational background are more severe than native speakers or speakers with overseas educational backgrounds , particularly in grammatical criteria.