Abstract：Abstract: Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) has been widely used in the teaching of college English writing; but the effect of its online feedback on English writing of learners with different language proficiency has remained largely unexplored. Within the theoretical lens of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), this study mainly adopted a quantitative design to explore the effect of AWE on English writing of college students with different proficiency from 3 perspectives: writing holistic score, writing process and perceived usefulness. The results showed that (1) low level students witnessed an improvement in their writing holistic scores, while high level students’ writing scores remained unchanged; (2) online automated feedback facilitated writing process and multi revision; (3) low level group scored higher than high level group in perceived usefulness. The interview also showed that attitudes toward online automated feedback varied among students with different language proficiency. Online automated feedback only contributes to the improvement of low proficiency learners’ writing; while high proficiency learners shows no progress in writing quality, thus less dependent on technology.
Key words: zone of proximal development; online automated feedback; English writing; language proficiency
