My access feedback validity for native Arabic speaking learners of English

الملخص EN

This study aims to explore the nature of feedback that native Arabic speaking students received on their writings from Automated Essay Scoring (AES) program, My Access.

The My Access program includes two features to provide feedback on writing: My Tutor and My Editor.

The participants were 55 female students who were enrolled in the third academic year 2010/2011 at the Faculty of Arts, English Department, Cairo University.

The essays analysis was the main data collection method.

The results reveal that My Editor feature of the My Access program detects fifteen types of writing errors, fails to capture some errors, sometimes identifies something as an error which is actually not and sometimes generates incorrect or confusing feedback.

My Tutor provides redundant feedback.

The AES developing company, Vantage Learning, needs to consider native Arabic speaking students errors while building its system.