ISANA

Dr Mary Roberts

Abstract: Many academic staff members find assessing written work by international students to be frustrating and
worrying. “Should I correct the language errors or stick only to the academic topic?”, “Should I correct all the
errors or only some?”, “Should I correct any errors at all?” and “Why doesn’t it seem to make any difference
to the students’ written English, no matter what I do?”. Partly because of teachers’ frustrations and worries in
this area, students’ work is often not assessed as effectively as it could be, and feedback is not always
particularly useful or effective.
This research analyses a collaborative project between university programme staff and learning support staff
working together to address these issues. The research on ESL error correction, criterion referenced
assessment, and international students was used as a starting point for exploring how to address these questions
successfully. The aim of the project was both to provide teaching staff with tools to use when assessing students’
work, and to assist the programme in developing a set of practices that would help them work with international
students to integrate more successfully and quickly with their New Zealand learning environment.

Keywords: international students, error correction, written feedback

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