efl learners’ perception of diagnostic assessment and remedial instruction to improve their writing ability

Diagnostic assessment has recently gained more attention in educational settings. accordingly, this research was carried out to shed light on efl learners’ perceptions of diagnostic assessment with particular attention to remedial instruction to improve their writing ability. to this, after conducting the oxford quick placement test (oqpt), 60 lower-intermediate efl learners from a language school in karaj, were selected, who were randomly assigned into two groups. both experimental and control groups took part in writing classes, but only the experimental group received diagnostic assessment with remedial instruction and feedback on their writing. the participants were given a writing pretest and posttest. to check the participants’ perceptions, they answered a questionnaire toward the whole process. seven participants from the experimental group also took part in an interview to have a better understanding of their perceptions of diagnostic assessment. the results of ancova revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the writing posttest, implying the effectiveness of diagnostic assessment in helping efl learners improve their writing ability. furthermore, the analysis of the responses to the questionnaires and interviews indicated that efl learners had a positive perception toward utilizing diagnostic assessment and remedial instruction to improve their writing performance.