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Article published In:
Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報)
Vol. 57:3 (2022) ► pp.270–297

Does text entry method make a difference on Chinese writing test scores?

| Brigham Young University
ORCID logo | Brigham Young University
| Brigham Young University
Should the writing construct be assessed through handwriting or keyboarding? As the only major language entirely without a syllabary or alphabet, the Chinese writing system is unique among modern languages, thus the question of writing proficiency is complicated by character recall. Most of the testing research comparing text entry methods has been conducted in English and has found that keyboarding and handwriting can be used interchangeably. This paper reports the outcome of a study comparing the results of handwritten and typed versions of the Chinese ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test (WPT). L2 Chinese students (n = 25) with Intermediate to Superior speaking skills were randomly divided into two groups and took both WPT versions in a counterbalanced design. Keyboarding resulted in significantly higher test scores [repeated measures ANOVA F(1, 23) = 62.7, p < .001, effect size partial eta squared = .73]. Keyboarding was on average 1.69 ACTFL sublevels higher than handwriting. Finally, this paper will discuss the writing construct in Chinese along with pedagogical implications around curricular decisions on teaching and assessing handwriting vs. keyboarding.
Keywords: assessment, writing, language testing, Chinese as a Second Language, Chinese, text entry method, Writing Proficiency Test
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and literature
    • 2.1Assessing writing
    • 2.2Roles of handwriting and keyboarding in writing
    • 2.3Effects of text entry with Chinese as first language (L1) Writing
    • 2.4Effects of text entry with Chinese as second language (L2) writing
    • 2.5Assessing writing proficiency
    • 2.6Effect of text entry on ESL writing assessments
    • 2.7Validating writing proficiency tests (WPT) for world languages
    • 2.8Assessing writing proficiency for Chinese
    • 2.9Research questions
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instruments
      • 3.2.1WPT
      • 3.2.2H-WPT
      • 3.2.3T-WPT
    • 3.3Procedures
    • 3.4Settings
    • 3.5Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1RQ1: Predictive keyboarding versus handwriting
    • 4.2RQ2: Speaking ability on convergent and divergent scores
      • 4.2.1Convergent ratings
      • 4.2.2Divergent ratings
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Implications and limitations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.22012.bou
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Coss, Matthew D.
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