On the Challenges of Assessing Writing for English as an Additional Language Students: Voices from Writing Teachers in International Schools

Despite all the attention directed to the assessment of writing in a variety of educational contexts, international schools are conspicuous by their absence in the existing literature on writing assessment. The present study investigates the challenges of assessing writing in English as an Additional Language (EAL) in international schools in the particular context of Iran, and the organizational factors contributing to these challenges. The analysis of data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 25 writing teachers from five international schools, as well as the narrative frames filled out by these teachers, revealed the main challenges that these instructors encountered while assessing writing within these educational settings. Academic supervisors of the schools were also interviewed to uncover the system policies and documents that guided teachers’ assessment practices. As indicated by the results, heterogeneity of students in terms of their writing ability, insufficient training in assessing writing, lack of clear assessment guidelines, and the difficulties involved in identifying the aspects of writing to be assessed were among the main challenges teachers encountered while assessing writing in international schools in Iran. The significant role played by the organizational context in the emergence of these assessment issues is discussed and some practical solutions are also proposed.