This research investigates how adult L2 learners with emergent literacy make meaning in assessment texts through writing. It examines their meaning-making processes, both perceptual and productive, on three iterations of assessment texts for students enrolled in a local English as a Second Language and English literacy program. The research explores what participants wrote and how they wrote it, as well as what they did not write. Under consideration was one type of test task: written short responses (e.g., “Write three sentences about the image”), with a variety of different multimodal designs for each writing task. Results show that the choices test designers make in the multimodal design of test tasks matter, in that there was a significant difference in response and meaning-making for different design variants. The results also illuminate participant engagement on assessment texts, revealing their beliefs about the purpose of writing, as well as their strategies for making meaning and engaging in dialogue with the absent test grader through writing. The study has implications for raising teachers’ awareness about what writing is for adult L2 learners with emergent literacy, as well as for how educators assess and evaluate the writing of this population.

这项研究调查了具有新兴读写能力的成年L2学习者如何通过写作在评估文本中表达意义。它针对评估语言的三个迭代版本检查了他们的理解过程，无论是感知的还是富有成效的，这些评估文本针对的是就读于本地英语作为第二语言和英语读写课程的学生。该研究探讨了参与者写的内容，写的方式以及未写的内容。正在考虑的一种测试任务是：简短的书面回答（例如，“在图像上写下三个句子”），以及针对每个书面任务的多种不同的多模式设计。结果表明，测试设计师在测试任务的多模式设计中所做的选择很重要，因为不同的设计变体在响应和含义表达上存在显着差异。结果还阐明了参与者对评估文本的参与程度，揭示了他们对写作目的的信念，以及他们通过写作来表达意义以及与缺席的评分者进行对话的策略。该研究对提高教师对什么的认识有启示写作适用于具有读写能力的成年L2学习者，以及教育者如何评估和评估该人群的写作。