Developing rubrics to assess the reading-into-writing skills: a case study

The integrated assessment of language skills, particularly reading-into-writing, is experiencing a renaissance. The use of rating rubrics, with verbal descriptors that describe quality of L2 writing performance, in large scale assessment is well-established. However, less attention has been directed towards the development of reading-into-writing rubrics. The task of identifying and evaluating the contribution of reading ability to the writing process and product so that it can be reflected in a set of rating criteria is not straightforward. This paper reports on a recent project to define the construct of reading-into-writing ability for designing a suite of integrated tasks at four proficiency levels, ranging from CEFR A2 to C1. The authors discuss how the processes of theoretical construct definition, together with empirical analyses of test taker performance, were used to underpin the development of rating rubrics for the reading-into-writing tests. Methodologies utilised in the project included questionnaire, expert panel judgement, group interview, automated textual analysis and analysis of rater reliability. Based on the results of three pilot studies, the effectiveness of the rating rubrics is discussed. The findings can inform decisions about how best to account for both the reading and writing dimensions of test taker performance in the rubrics descriptors.