在評量學生的寫作能力時，通常採用直接測驗。然而，四技二專統一入學測驗英文專業考科卻採用間接測驗，來評量應用外語科學生的英文寫作能力。本研究旨在檢視專業考科之效力，並研究如何改進現行的考試方式。 為了達成該研究目的，119位應用外語科三年級學生參與本研究。本研究間接測驗試題採用四技二專統一入學測驗英文專業考科，直接測驗試題採用看圖寫作，以檢視專業考科與直接寫作成績之間的相關性。此外本研究使用問卷以調查學生對直接與間接寫作測驗的看法。 結果顯示，專業考科與看圖寫作之間呈現中度相關，表示該專業考科在某種程度上，能顯示出受試者的直接寫作能力。在四個大題中，段落組成及段落語意不連貫句子挑選與看圖寫作呈現中度相關，因此，這兩個大題較能顯示出受試者的直接寫作能力。 然而，問卷調查結果發現，受試者運用篇章結構的知識來完成間接測驗。但是，卻沒有運用相同的概念於直接測驗中。此種現象可能是因為傳統的寫作教學方式著重在文法分析及單字教學。因此，四技二專統一入學測驗的英文專業考科應同時施測直接與間接測驗，以期對英文寫作教學產生正面的回衝效應。 / Direct writing assessment is usually employed to evaluate students’ writing proficiency. However, the Technological and Vocational Education (TVE) Joint College Entrance Exam adopts indirect writing assessment to assess students from Department of Applied Foreign Languages (DAFL) in English Professional Subject (EPS). The purpose of the present paper is to examine the effectiveness of the EPS indirect writing test and how the current practice can be improved. For serving the purpose, a total of 119 third-year DAFL students participated in the study. The researcher uses indirect writing assessment, the EPS indirect writing test, and direct writing assessment, a picture writing task, as the testing instruments to examine the correlation between the two writing measures. Moreover, questionnaires are used to investigate the participants’ perceptions of the two writing tasks. Results indicated that the EPS multiple-choice writing test and the picture writing task exhibited a moderate correlation, suggesting the indirect test could, at least in part, serve as a good indication of the students’ writing competence in direct writing. Results also showed that sentence insertion (SI) and sentence deletion (SD), among the four subtests, moderately correlated with the direct writing task. The two subtests could thus be depended on as a better indication of the participants’ direct writing proficiency. Nevertheless, questionnaire findings displayed that the students applied discourse-level knowledge in the indirect test. Nonetheless, the same concept was not applied to the direct task probably because of the traditional teaching approach to English writing, focusing on grammar analysis and vocabulary teaching. Therefore, the two writing tasks should be combined in the entrance exam to produce positive washback effect on writing instruction.

In the stories of olden times and in those of our own American Indians, we learned of the picture writing of primitive peoples. It became an early method of recording people's thoughts. This was a very useful method at a time when the race was young. This in turn was the beginning of our alphabet, later the beginning of shaping letters into words, and then word into sentences and paragraphs. As our world has grown older, new idea have come into use and we are no longer content to live as our grandparents lived. We travel by fast express trains, high powered auto- mobiles, airplanes, or zeppelins. The radio gives us the news before our papers containing it are on the street. are not able to talk with people on the other side of the world. Business men find this a very valuable means of doing business when time means money. The motion pictures bring us the story of the book we have not had time to read and the characters from its pages talk to us from the screen. In short, we must have quicker ways of doing things.