This study examined differences between native and nonnative EFL(English as a Foreign Language)teachers' ratings of the English writing of Chinese university students.I explored whether two groups of teachers—expatriates who typically speak English as their first language and ethnic Chinese with proficiency in English—gave similar scores to the same writing task and used the same criteria in their judgments.Forty-six teachers—23 Chinese and 23 English-background—rated 10 expository essays using a 10-point scale,then wrote and ranked three reasons for their ratings.I coded their reported reasons as positive or negative criteria under five major categories:general, content,organization,language and length.The results raise questions about the validity of holistic ratings as well as the underlying differences between native and nonnative EFL teachers in their instructional goals for second language(L2)writing.
