Sentence Relations in the Writing of EFL Students at University Level

6.4 The Reliability of Scoring
Ellis (2003:349) states that a test is reliable if it gives the same results
when
administrated on different occasions or scored by different people.
Thus, within the concept of reliability the two types of consistency are
involved: the reliability of the test itself and the reliability of scoring of the
test, referred to as test/re-test and mark-re-mark reliability respectively by
(Heaton 1988).For the purpose of the study, the reliability of the scoring
has been used. It is described as the consistency of scoring by two or more
examiners or the same examiner on different occasions. From the sample
of the study, fifteen test papers were randomly chosen. They were, then,
independently corrected by two scorers, the researcher and another one
(Mrs.Basima Othman) assistant instructor at the English Department, The
two sets of scores were obtained and Pearson’s coefficient correlation was
computed between them. Reliability coefficient was (0.91) which
Valette(1967:32)considers a high positive correlation.
6.5 The Test Administration
The test was applied to one hundred fourth year students during
the first term of the academic year (2006-2007). On 9.1.2007, the test
was administered at the English Department of the College of Education
for Human Sciences. On 10.1.2007, the same test was administrated at the
English Department of the College of Languages. The test papers were
distributed and the instructions were read. The students were told to
answer, then the test papers were collected and scored. The results are
quantified, tabulated and presented in table (1).
7. Results and Discussion
7.1 The Identification and Classification of Errors:
The total number of cohesive devices correct as well incorrect, are
counted in students’ compositions, as shown in (Table 1).Then students’
errors are identified and ranked into five categories (See Table 3). A look
at Table 3- shows that the total number of the uses of reference is 279 and
the number of incorrect use is207 i.e. %40.27. Moreover, the total number
of the uses of substitution is 11 and the number of incorrect use is 5.i.e.
%0.97, while the total number of the uses of ellipsis is 20 and the number
of incorrect use is 16 i.e. %3.11 of the uses are incorrect. Furthermore, the
total number of the uses of conjunction is 260 and the number of incorrect
use is 205, i.e%.39.88.of the uses are incorrect. Finally, the total number of
the uses of lexical cohesion is 433and the number of incorrect use is 81, i.e.
%15.75. The statistical analysis in table -8- shows that the most frequent
errors made by the sample are in the use of Reference. Reference takes the
first rank among other types of cohesive devices since it forms % 40.27of
the errors. The errors in conjunction form %39.88 and take the second
rank. While the errors in lexical take the third rank and form %15.75.The
errors in ellipsis form%3.11and take the fourth rank whereas the errors of
substitution form %0.97 and take the fifth rank. Three types of statistical
comparisons are made in this chapter. First the two factors of cohesion,
lexical and grammatical are compared with each other and presented in a
separate table. The second type of comparison is performed among the four
categories of correct, incorrect grammatical devices. The third statistical
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