The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cultural bias in essay topics on non-native speaker (NNS) undergraduate writing performance. To do this, this study uses the essay subsection of Florida's College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST). Motivation for this study came from: (a) a call for research in this area; (b) evidence that racial/ethnic minority groups perform inconsistently on the CLAST essay exam, while White Non-Hispanics demonstrate consistent pass rates across administrations; and (c) evaluations of prior CLAST essay topics that show that some CLAST topics are culturally biased. / In order to determine whether cultural bias in essay topics affects NNS writing performance, other factors that influence writing proficiency were controlled for in the sample selection process and in the research design: the reader, the writer, the task, and the scoring procedure. Each of the 56 subjects in this study was assigned either a culturally biased or culture fair essay topic at random. The mean score of the culturally biased group (n = 29) was then compared to the mean score of the culture-fair group (n = 27). The results of both the parametric and nonparametric statistical tests led to the rejection of the null hypothesis at the 95 percent level of confidence or higher. / The findings of this study are consistent with the alternative hypothesis which states that on average, NNSs produce better writing scores on culture-fair essay topics than on culturally biased essay topics. Thus, if some CLAST exams contain culturally biased essay topics, while some contain culture-fair essay topics, this inconsistency may explain the observed inconsistencies in the pass rates of racial/ethnic minority groups. If exams are not culture-fair, they may not provide equal opportunities for all examinees to achieve a passing score. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0890. / Co-Major Professors: Frederick L. Jenks; Elizabeth Platt. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77139 |
| Contributors | Niendorf, Kari Anne., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 142 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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