RATER AGREEMENT AND DISAGREEMENT IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ENGLISH ARTICLE ACQUISITION SUPPLIANCE AND ACCURACY

Rose Acen Upor(1*),

(1) University of Dar es Salaam
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This study combines language assessment processes and interlanguage analysis techniques to determine rater agreement and disagreement in assessing English article acquisition. Employing native English speaking and non-native English speaking raters, picture sequence narratives that were written by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners (n=97) were coded and scored for suppliance-in-obligatory context (SOC) and target-like utterance (TLU). Although the kappa statistic revealed a fair agreement between raters (0.17 – 0.33), content analysis methods revealed much higher agreement (88.29% - 94.07%). Furthermore, language background effects between the raters could not be substantiated however the results demonstrated a discernable disagreement pattern between them. Thus, the study recommends the inclusion of a foreign language teaching background as a factor for rater selection to minimize language background effects on rating language assessments.


Keywords


Article acquisition; Inter-rater agreement; SOC; TLU; EFL; Inter-rater disagreement; Language background effects

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v24i1.2603

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