Abstract:
In English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing, students express difficulties in producing high quality essays. Having a mindset of ‘play the game by its rule’, students perceive a clear understanding of the assessment standards as an important step towards producing good written work; this is especially true when students are preparing themselves for high-stakes language tests namely IELTS. ESL writing research has found that the assessment standards of writing, which is a kind of ‘tacit knowledge’, is ‘difficult to transfer verbally or in writing’ (Carless & Chan, 2017), but is best illustrated through the use of exemplars. ‘Exemplars’, defined by Royce Sadler, a prominent advocate of the use of exemplars, as ‘key examples chosen so as to be typical of designated levels of quality or competence’ (1987, p. 200), is one of the promising ways to develop students’ understanding of the ambiguous criteria of ‘good work’ because exemplars are ‘concrete embodiment of standards’ (To & Carless, 2015, p. 2). This TDG project aims at developing an exemplar anthology and an online exemplar platform for IELTS Writing (Tasks 1 and 2), which will be used by the PSS to conduct a series of IELTS writing workshops in ASLLC for all EdUHK students.
Code:
T0203
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 May 2018
End Date:
30 Apr 2019
Status:
Completed
Result:
In terms of student engagement, the research team has provided IELTS writing service to EdUHK undergraduate and postgraduate students in three ways: (1) IELTS writing editing service, (2) IELTS writing workshops, and (2) IELTS writing consultations. Future student engagement includes the use of textbook materials in CLE courses and/ or IELTS workshops and an online version of the textbook (in the form of a website). Regarding knowledge transfer, a teacher training workshop on the use of writing exemplars was conducted in June to a group of EFL teachers at a foreign language school in Chengdu. Moreover, a textbook proposal was accepted by Routledge based on the materials developed by the project team; the textbook development is currently under contract. As for scholarly publications, a 'theory into practice' paper has been published and a primary research paper is being prepared for submission.
Impact:
IELTS writing editing service was provided to 134 EdUHK students who submitted their writing and received written feedback and grades from the research team. 16 IELTS writing workshops and 21 one-on-one IELTS writing consultations have been conducted between October and November 2018 using the developed materials, which benefited 165 students. The post-workshop evaluation questionnaire results and individual student interviews indicated that workshop and consultation participants were overwhelming satisfied with the quality of instruction and claimed to have benefited from the language services. In terms of deliverables, a 'theory into practice' paper has been published in a reputable international refereed journal in the field of higher education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (Rank A). This paper was presented in two international conferences held in Hong Kong and Australia.
Deliverables:
Books/ Book Chapters/ Journal Articles/ Conference Papers
Chong, S. W. (2019). The Use of Exemplars in English Writing Classrooms: from Theory to Practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 748-763. (Retrieved at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2018.1535051)(https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/the-use-of-exemplars-in-english-writing-classrooms-from-theory-to)
Chong, S. W., & Ye, X. J. (2020). Developing writing skills for IELTS: A research-based approach. Oxon, UK: Routledge.
Seminars/Presentations/Sharing Sessions
Chong, S. W. (2018, June). Exemplar-based writing instruction for young English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Presentation at Chengdu Tanghu Foreign Languages School. (No of participants: 20 secondary school EFL teachers) (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/exemplarbased-writing-instruction-for-efl-junior-secondary-learne)
Chong, S. W. & Ye, X. J. (2018, October). Development of an Exemplar-based Writing Instruction for Teaching IELTS Writing. Paper presented at 2018 International Conference on Bilingual Learning and Teaching, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Number of participants: 17)(https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/development-of-an-exemplarbased-writing-instruction-textbook-for-)
Chong, S. W. (2018, December). Development Curriculum Materials to Support Exemplar-based Writing Instruction in ESL/EFL K-12 and Higher Education Contexts. Paper presented at Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2018, Sydney, Australia. (Number of participants: 4)(https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/developing-curriculum-materials-to-support-exemplarbased-writing-)
Chong, S. W. (2019, March). Using exemplars to develop evaluative judgement. Seminar presented at Hong Kong Continuing Professional Development Hub Colloquium, Hong Kong. (Number of participants: 20)
Teaching and Learning Resources/ Materials (including online resources)
Developing writing skills for IELTS through exemplars (http://www.eduhk.hk/cle2/resources/cep/tdg-master/index.html)
Financial Year:
2017-18
Type:
TDG