There is no doubt that testing is an essential part of language teaching and learning. A
language test in general can be a “ sample language behavior and infer general ability in
the language learnt.”(Brown D.H, 1994:252). In other words, from the results of the test,
depending on different kinds of tests with different purposes as well, the teacher infers a
certain level of language competence of his students in such different areas as grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, or speaking, listening, writing and reading.
It is obvious that the teacher plays a very important role in the process of assessment and
measurement which is conducted through testing. It is said that “ language testing is a form
of measurement. It is so closely related to teaching that we cannot work in testing without
being constantly concerned with teaching.”(Heaton, 1988:5).
There are various types of test which serve different purposes in foreign language teaching
and learning. Among the kinds of tests and testing,writing tests are said to be less reliable
from the point of both scorer and testee. This situation can be seen clearly at Nghe An
Junior Teacher Training College. For many years, English writing has been considered the
most difficult skill to be tested among teachers. Teachers have found it difficult to mark the
achievement writing tests accurately, in particularmark compositions, as they blame that
there is no rating scale for scoring compositions, or the provided rating scale is too general.
Apart from this, many students are still worried about the results of the writing
achievement tests, especially the task of writing a composition as they wonder if their
writings are accurately evaluated by raters.