Abstract: The current study was set up to investigate to what extent Iranian EFL university teachers considered various non-achievement factors (i.e. effort, behavior and ability) in assigning final grades. In addition, it explored whether the teachers in Iranian State and Azad universities differed in their grading practices. To this end, a total number of 50 Iranian EFL university teachers of both genders in public (N=25) and private universities (N=25) in Mashhad, Iran were selected based on convenience random sampling. The main instrument of the study was an adapted version of the questionnaire used by McMillan (2001). The findings revealed that most Iranian university teachers maintained that behavior of the testers was among the non-achievement factors in assigning final grades. In addition, the findings showed that there was a significant difference between Iranian State and Azad university teachers in terms of grading practices.

Keywords