DEVELOPMENT OF ERROR ANALYSIS MARKING TOOL FOR

MARKING ESL WRITING AT IHLS

01-01-02-SF0092

Prof. Madya Dr. Saadiyah Darus

Dr. Nazlia Omar
Dr. Tg Nor Rizan Tg Maasum
Prof. Madya Dr. Siti Hamin Stapa
Dr. Mohd Juzaiddin Abdul Aziz

ABSTRACT

Writing in a second language is not an easy task. Research have shown that ESL learners
write differently from native English speakers (NES). Errors in second language (L2) are
an important construct that is central to L2 writing. Written errors made by adult L2
learners are often quite different from those made by NES. Marking essays written by L2
learners could be an overwhelming task and time consuming for lecturers especially
when classes become larger. Larger classes reduce opportunities for learners’ feedback
on written work and learners in turn may have little contact with their lecturers. With the
development of automated essay marking systems, opportunities for learners’ essay
feedback could be increased and their writing quality improved. 400 essays written by
undergraduate students who enrolled in Written Communication course at the School of
Language Studies and Linguistic, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia were analysed using Markin 3.1. This poster illustrates an
approach for developing an automated marking tool for tenses in English as second
language (ESL) and introduces heuristics and rule-based approach to detect grammatical
errors in tenses. Based on the observation of English sentence structure and grammar, the
formation of heuristics can be further developed to improve the accuracy of the result.
For future work, weights may be assigned to each of the heuristics in order to support the
level of confidence of each of the heuristics. The results show that heuristics and rule-
based approach is useful and can improve the effectiveness of automated essay marking
tool for writing in ESL. The next step is the development of algorithm based on the
heuristics and rule-based approach for detecting errors in learners’ essays. Based on these
algorithms, the automated marking tool will be developed.