A comparative analysis of the use of metadiscourse markers in online formative and summative assessment

Abstract

In this paper, my main aim is to compare the effectiveness of formative assessment and summative assessment of communicative skills in online tasks. Different types of online tasks were designed to be done by students in two subjects in the first and second semester of an academic year. Summative assessment was carried out in the subject of the first semester to the control group. In the second semester, formative assessment was performed in another subject to the experimental group. This experiment was performed to graduate students whose mother tongue was Chinese and had to write the tasks in Spanish. In order to identify and analyse the results of the experiment, several aspects were taken into account, such as the use of metadiscursive markers, interaction with the teacher, and effective communication. The students did the tasks progressively and the results were compared in the control and experimental groups. The results were commented in order to identify if differences were observed in the use of metadiscursive markers and the conclusions of the study were drawn.