This paper aims to show that the implementation of school-based assessment (SBA) has proved to have positive impact on the performance of students in the public oral examination. An SBA component was introduced to the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination English Language Examination in 2007. This consists of a reading / viewing programme where students need to read / view texts, write up some comments and personal reflections, and then take part in a discussion with classmates on the texts they have read / viewed, or make an individual presentation and respond to questions. The assessment is based on the student’s oral performance. The 2007 experience has shown that the speaking ability of students can be reliably assessed in school by their own teachers. Statistically, the SBA component has proved to be as reliable as the speaking examination. The beneficial washback of SBA can be seen in the results of the speaking examination. Candidates from schools that submitted SBA marks had a lower absentee rate than candidates from schools not submitting SBA marks. They also performed better in the speaking examination.
本文旨在顯示推行校本評核證實對學生在公開考試的口試表現有正面影響。香港中學會考英國語文科在2007年引進校本評核，學生須閱讀或閱覽各種文本，包括小說類及非小說類的書籍及影片，並寫下評論及個人感想，然後與同學進行小組討論，或作個人短講並回答提問。旨在評核學生的說話能力。根據2007年的體驗，老師能可靠地評核學生的說話能力。統計資料亦顯示校本評核和口試的信度相若。校本評核的正面影響可見於公開口試的成績 ，於進行校本評核的學校就讀的考生缺席率較低，成績也較佳。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

本文討論在公開考試的框架下，如何邁向教改和新通識科的課程目標。以1994-2005年的高級程度通識教育科會考考試報告作為研究對象，本文嘗試找出公開考試的實際評分標準，並分析這些評分標準如何指導通識科的實際教與學經歷，討論教師和學生應如何面對和處理公開考試，以更有效地讓通識科的課程目標在學生的學習經歷中得到貫徹。
This paper discusses the question of how to achieve the curriculum objectives of the NSSLS subject within the public examination framework. Through studying the 1994-2005 AS Liberal Studies examination reports, this paper attempts to examine the actual grading criteria of the past LS examinations, and to analyze how these grading criteria have shaped teachers' and students' actual teaching and learning experiences. It then discusses strategies that teachers and students could adopt, in face of public examinations, to more effectively facilitate students' actual learning experiences that are in alignment with the LS curriculum objectives.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

In recent years, the emphasis in second language (L2) oral proficiency assessment has shifted from linguistic accuracy to discourse strategies such as the ability to initiate, respond, and negotiate meaning. This has resulted in a growing interest in the discourse analysis of students' performance in different oral proficiency assessment formats. The study reported in this article represents an attempt to investigate students' discourse performance in L2 oral proficiency assessments conducted in the form of peer group interactions in Hong Kong. Forty-three female Hong Kong secondary students were involved. Findings from a qualitative discourse analysis of the students' interaction data supplemented with data from interviews and a questionnaire reveal the emergence of a test-task specific genre featuring recurrent frames of talk for task management, content delivery, and response giving. These frames were characterized by discourse features that seem to be ritualized, contrived, and colluded. Such interaction practices suggest a strong desire on the part of the students to maintain the impression of being effective interlocutors for scoring purposes rather than for authentic communication. Implications for test construct validity and the impact on the students' L2 oral proficiency development are discussed.
[Copyright of Language Assessment Quarterly is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15434300903473997]

This article describes the development of an instrument - the Career and Talent Development Self-Efficacy Scale (CTD-SES) - for assessing students' self-efficacy in applying life skills essential for personal talent development, acquisition of positive work habits, and career exploration. In Study 1, data were obtained from a large sample of Chinese middle-school students (N=15,113) in Grades 7-9 in Hong Kong. The CTD-SES is an 18-item questionnaire with subscales containing items that address students' orientations toward developing their own talents, acquiring and applying positive work habits, and exploring their career possibilities. Evidence is provided for internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure of the CTD-SES. Goodness of fit statistics provided support for a three-primary-factor-plus-higher-factor model, and this solution was used in the statistical analyses. The data also indicated that students with plans for university study reported significantly higher scores than those without on all three domains of career and talent development. In Study 2 (N=308) Grade 10 high-ability students' scores in CTD-SES were correlated with scores in career decision self-efficacy and academic performance. The development and validation of CTD-SES is the first step toward investigating career exploration, work habits, and talent development among Asian middle-school adolescents.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2010.488089]