An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

teacher education, but also consolidate and extend scholarship in studies of English 
writing, particularly in a foreign language setting.’)
Overall, how effective do you think this proposal is in responding to the rhetorical 
situation? What aspects of the proposal are particularly effective? What aspects of the 
text could be improved? 

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281
Suggested Solutions
Overall, the proposal does what it needs to do. The most obvious strength is the 
study itself as well as the ways in which the author emphasizes the implications of 
this study to the field and to other contexts. To improve this proposal, the author 
might foreground the purpose of the presentation by mentioning it earlier, and by 
condensing the background information in the first paragraph. That would create 
more space for more thorough descriptions of the overall design of the study as 
well as the data collection and analysis procedures. 
Suppose the writer of the proposal has asked you to read and comment on the proposal 
before submitting it. Provide one page of written feedback for the writer.
Thank you for sharing your draft proposal with me – I enjoyed reading it. This 
study presents a much needed critical examination of teacher preparation and 
teacher preparedness in the context of EFL writing instruction. Overall, the 
proposal presents the necessary information – the background information about 
an important issue in the field, a brief description of the components of the study 
and data collection, an indication of the possible outcomes and its relevance to 
the field and to other contexts. 
There are a number of ways in which this proposal could be strengthened. First, 
this proposal refers primarily to the study along with its background and some 
implications, but it does not refer directly to the presentation itself. It might be useful 
to state early in the proposal what you are going to do at the time of the presentation 
(for example, ‘This presentation will explore the issue of second language writing 
teacher education by drawing on a qualitative multiple-case study of EFL college 
writing teachers in Taiwan’). Specifying the geographic or institutional context in the 
first paragraph would also be important because, as it stands, the entire first paragraph 
seems to make a sweeping generalization about the teaching of writing in general.
Another suggestion would be to reduce the amount of background information 
in the first paragraph and spend more time describing the overall design of 
the study. While the information about the type of data collection (that is, 
observations of writing classes at four institutions and interviews with 20 writing 
teachers) is included, they seem to be buried in other details. In fact, it reads like 
a narrative (a chronological sequencing of different segments of the study) rather 
than a description (a mapping of the overall design and its components). 
Hope you find these comments useful. Thanks again for sharing this proposal. I 
look forward to learning how the study turns out!
Chapter 15, 
Assessment
Question 1
Summary of predictions and results in a quantitative validity argument
Item, predicted and 
actual results
Beginning
Intermediate
Advanced
Item
My name is 
Sandy
The main focus of 
the course
People’s stereotypes of 
other social groups
Predicted
High
Medium
Low
Actual item 
difficulty
100
74
42

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282 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
Question 2
The correlations suggest that forms 2 and 3 are the most similar of the three tests 
and therefore these are the ones that should be chosen, all other things being 
equal.
Question 3
Placing predicted differences in ability in Business English
Predicted test 
performance
Lowest scores
Third-highest 
scores
Second-
highest scores 
Highest 
scores 
Group
NNSNBM
NNSBM
NSNBM
NSBM
NNSNBM = Non-native speakers of English, non-business majors; NNSBM = Non-native speakers of English, 
business majors; NSNBM = Native speakers of English, non-business majors; NSBM = native speakers of 
English, business majors.
Question 4
We would hope for a correlation of around 0.70–0.80. We do not want the tests to 
correlate near perfectly, because the hope is that the tests will not measure exactly 
the same language abilities. The computer-based test is supposed to be better.
Question 5
They were concerned not only with the correlations but also with the construct 
that the test measured and the influence that the test would have on students 
studying English for the test.
Question 6
Your test is a criterion-referenced test that is appropriate for your grading purposes, 
but there is no reason to expect that it would correlate with a test for another 
purpose. You do not want your test judged on the basis of a single analysis that is 
affected in ways that neither you nor your administrator understand.

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References
Chapter 1, 
An Overview of Applied Linguistics
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., Finegan, E. (1999) Longman