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Assessment of EFL Writing in Some Arab World University Contexts: Issues and Challenges

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Assessing EFL Writing in the 21st Century Arab World

Abstract

Assessment of EFL writing in most Arab world universities is a thorny issue that is worthy of investigation. This chapter sheds light on how EFL writing is assessed in ten Arab world university contexts including Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen. Assessment of EFL writing in the Arab world does not seem to cope with the current trends in assessment worldwide for some different reasons. First, Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes do not appear to create assessment-literate pre-service teachers. Second, teacher educators are not fully aware of the latest developments in assessment because of some constraints such as funding, teaching load, and lack of resources. Third, teachers’ beliefs about the assessment of EFL writing are incongruent with their practices. In addition, other challenges such as top-down management, lack of accountability, bureaucratic systems, teachers’ workload, large classes, and lack of teachers’ professional development opportunities could account for not having a rigorous and valid assessment of EFL writing in the Arab world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdelhamid Ahmed

  2. Core Curriculum Program, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Abdelhamid Ahmed

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  1. Abdelhamid Ahmed
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdelhamid Ahmed

  2. Ecole Nationales Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco

    Hassan Abouabdelkader

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Ahmed, A. (2018). Assessment of EFL Writing in Some Arab World University Contexts: Issues and Challenges. In: Ahmed, A., Abouabdelkader, H. (eds) Assessing EFL Writing in the 21st Century Arab World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64104-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64104-1_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64104-1

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