Exploring the interaction among writing fluency, writing processes, and external resource access in second language writing assessment

As part of a larger investigation into the ecology of language tests, this study explores how writing fluency and writing processes are impacted by (dis)allowing access to external writing resources. An analysis was conducted of three international graduate students’ writing practices as they completed two argumentative writing assessment tasks. On one task, participants could access external writing resources (e.g., the internet) and had additional time to complete the task; on the other, access to writing resources was not permitted and a more restricted time limit was enforced. Data were collected from digital screen capture recordings of participants’ compositional practices and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results indicated that participants took more time and wrote at a slower pace when they had access to external resources; however, additional time did not necessarily lead to a greater volume of writing. Participants also tended to shuttle between writing processes more frequently and execute more micro-level writing actions when they had access to external resources. However, there was substantial individual variation for both fluency and writing processes, highlighting the mediating role of individual differences in L2 writing. Implications for how the construct of academic writing ability is defined in different assessment contexts are discussed.