Academic writing assessment in the Iranian expanding circle context: any trust in local criteria?

The present study set out to find out how Iranian EFL writing raters as a particular non-native speaker (NNS) group in an expanding context perceive the construct of writing as they rate the essays. For this aim, a body of 15 experienced raters were asked to verbalize their thoughts while rating the essays. Upon a rigorous content analysis of the raters' protocols, it was found that the majority of the raters prioritized mechanical and grammatical aspects of the texts when assessing the texts. In fact, the raters equated writing with a small and superficial set of criteria. The findings revealed that, despite the pluralization of language needs and contexts in the Iranian EFL context, language testing practice is still norm-dependent. The study also warns that such a limited conception of writing construct should be given a second thought in a time when local non-native criterion are encouraged.