ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 reports findings concerning differences (across proficiency levels) and changes (across test occasions) in indices of content for the independent task and indices of source use for the integrated task. Content was examined in terms of topic adherence, or the lexical and semantic overlap between each essay and the independent task. Source use was examined using a combination of human holistic rating of quality of use of sources; manual coding of how ideas from the sources are integrated in the integrated essays; and computer analysis of the degree of lexical and semantic overlap between integrated essays and the source texts. Findings indicated that the independent essays improved in terms of topic adherence after instruction. Source use indices also exhibited significant changes across occasions; some of these indices also varied significantly across proficiency levels. Tables and graphs show the significant main and interaction effects for test occasion and proficiency level on indices of content and source use in students’ texts.
