This paper argues for the value of system networks as a diagnostic tool in L2 writing education. We report on an investigation of Chinese students learning to write in English over a period of a year in Year 9 of high school, characterizing their choices in the system of modality in different writing tasks over that period, and we also report on an extension of this investigation based on two additional sampling points, Year 12 of high school and Year 3 of university. Our findings indicate that even when we sample L2 texts from three different periods in education, the expansion in the use of the meaning potential embodied in the system of modality is quite limited - as long as we focus on texts from one register. We have also seen from Xuan's (2015. A longitudinal study of Chinese high school students learning English based on systemic functional text analysis. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University PhD thesis) study of Year 9 writing tasks from a few different registers that there was no clear sense of progression throughout the year. The results show that careful selection and ordering of texts from registers that afford learners with complementary opportunities over time to engage with and master different parts of the resources of the system of modality can be recommended in L2 writing education. Copyright © 2025 De Gruyter .

This paper examines a new first-year EAP course in a Hong Kong university. It utilizes teacher and student reflections to understand the course's strengths and weaknesses, aiming to enhance its design and delivery. The study employed a qualitative approach whereby textual analysis was used to interpret the data collected in the form of written teacher reflections, written student reflections, and notes of teacher reflective dialogue. The thematic categories for coding the data were established based on the course's main learning outcomes: Effective Learning, Spoken Language, and Written Language. Findings reveal that teachers were more critical of the course compared to learners. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the pedagogical approach to Effective Learning unit, insufficient time provided in the course to teach solo speaking, and the inability to cover too many organizational and linguistic features in the writing unit. Students, however, did not have much to reflect on about Effective Learning, had mixed views about Spoken Language with some worried about reading from notes, and wrote extremely positively about their learning of Written Language. Nonetheless, their views provide valuable insights for course improvement. Consequently, the paper advocates for a reflective pedagogy approach to EAP that considers both teacher and student reflections to enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

Effective professional development (PD) in teaching writing involves supporting teachers' knowledge of the writer's craft, including their thinking processes, linguistic knowledge and practical strategies for teaching these. Grammar-for-writing approaches support teachers' knowledge of how grammar creates meaningful effects in writing. While training initiatives support teachers' knowledge of writing processes, more is needed to transfer process knowledge into effective teaching. Synthesising writerly processes with grammar-for-writing strategies may support teachers' classroom practice. This article explores the development of a workshop for teachers on a novel imaginative embodiment approach for teaching narrative writing, which links imaginative thinking and linguistic knowledge. The article reports on a study with Year 5 international school teachers in Hong Kong and their perceived efficacy of the approach after trialling it in their classrooms throughout a narrative writing unit, with the purpose of informing future teacher training. Findings from semi-structured interviews showed that teachers perceived imaginative embodiment as supporting their insider understanding of writing processes through purposeful and specific strategies resulting in student improvements. However, unfamiliarity with the approach and insecure linguistic subject knowledge resulted in a steep learning curve. It is argued that imaginative embodiment training may develop teachers' understanding of, and strategies for, teaching the link between narrative imagination and grammatical choice, but training should cater to teachers' prior linguistic knowledge. Copyright © 2024 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Informed by self-determination theory, this study investigates the motivations behind students' voluntary pursuit of a master's thesis and the crucial role of supervisory support in their academic journey. The study also explores the impact of writing a master's thesis on their growth and well-being. Data were collected through interviews with 20 students from diverse disciplines in government-funded universities in Hong Kong. The interviews centred on critical themes such as students' motivations, expectations, feedback practices, supervisor-student relationships, challenges, and engagement levels. Thematic analysis revealed that the students were primarily driven by well-internalised and autonomous extrinsic motivations to write a master's thesis, with the aim of laying the foundation for a future PhD and achieving personal and professional development goals. The interaction between these motivations and the supervisory support, particularly in meeting students' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, significantly contributed to their academic, professional, and personal growth and well-being. The implications of these findings for supporting students' engagement and development are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

The study aims at exploring cognitive factors that might have an impact on the effect of the use of ChatGPT as a writing feedback giving tool. Five Form four students in a Band two secondary school in Hong Kong participated in the study. In each meeting session, they were asked to write a writing task and revise it based on the feedback received from ChatGPT. To understand more about the cognitive processes involved when the feedback is processed, a stimulated recall interview was conducted after each revision process. In the fourth meeting, some questions regarding how they feel about the use of this kind of feedback were asked. Two factors were found to be related to the effectiveness of the WCF: (1) whether the feedback could be processed with understanding; (2) whether the learners can pay enough attention to the areas for improvement provided by the feedback the next time they write. Students generally value the use of feedback but admitted that sometimes failing to understand the feedback or pay enough attention to the language items targeted. Further research into the effect of ChatGPT as a writing feedback giving tool with variation can help teachers make pedagogical decisions to maximize the effect of the feedback. Copyright © 2024 The Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.

This study applies Activity Theory to investigate how English as a foreign language (EFL) students prompt generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools during short story writing. Sixty-seven Hong Kong secondary school students created their own generative-AI tools using open-source language models and wrote short stories with them. The study collected and analyzed the students' generative-AI tools, short stories, and written reflections on their conditions or purposes for prompting. The research identified three main themes regarding the purposes for which students' prompt generative-AI tools during short story writing: a lack of awareness of purposes, overcoming writer's block, and developing, expanding, and improving the story. The study also identified common characteristics of students' activity systems, including the sophistication of their generative-AI tools, the quality of their stories, and their school's overall academic achievement level, for their prompting of generative-AI tools for the three purposes during short story writing. The study's findings suggest that teachers should be aware of students' purposes for prompting generative-AI tools to provide tailored instructions and scaffolded guidance. The findings may also help designers provide differentiated instructions for users at various levels of story development when using a generative-AI tool. Copyright © 2025 Taylor & Francis.

This classroom-based study investigates how engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) through the completion of error logs is related to improvements in linguistic accuracy in new pieces of writing. Conducted over eight weeks in a Hong Kong secondary school English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom with 20 student participants, the study involved learners completing error logs after receiving metalinguistic WCF on their written texts. The error logs required learners to record each error and type, their corrections, and explanations for each correction. Using a pre-test, post-test design, the study compared learners' linguistic accuracy before and after the error log intervention, and explored the relationship between accuracy gains and successful error log completion. Learners' attitudes towards using error logs were also assessed through questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicated that linguistic accuracy significantly improved from pre-test to post-test, there was a significant positive correlation between accuracy gains and level of success in explaining corrections, and that learners generally held positive attitudes towards using error logs. The positive perceptions stemmed mainly from learners' recognition that the error logs raised their awareness of common errors and fostered their linguistic development. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

The study examined the frequency and accuracy of four discourse competence (DC) parameters (i. e., establishment of a smooth old-to-new information flow, stance display, engagement with readers, and mastery of knowledge of discourse structure) in Hong Kong English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) secondary students' disciplinary research reports. The results showed that: (1) elements of establishment of a smooth old-to-new information flow constituted, on average, less than 9 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 64.31 % to 80.33 %; (2) elements of stance display constituted, on average, no more than 3 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 58.33 % to 98.17 %; (3) elements of engagement with readers constituted, on average, no more than 2 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 33.33% to 88.64 %; (4) the mean accuracy rates of mastery of knowledge of discourse structure ranged from 0 % to 100 %. The findings reveal the secondary students' DC in disciplinary research writing and pinpoint weak areas that instructors can work on. The proposed DC framework forms a foundation for future research on DC in discipline-specific research writing. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

This study examined whether two integrated reading -to -write tasks could broaden the construct representation of the writing component of Duolingo English Test (DET). It also verified whether they could enhance DET 's predictive power of English academic writing in universities. The tasks were (1) writing a summary based on two source texts and (2) writing a reading -to -write essay based on five texts. Both were given to a sample (N = 204) of undergraduates from Hong Kong. Each participant also submitted an academic assignment written for the assessment of a disciplinary course. Three professional raters double -marked all writing samples against detailed analytical rubrics. Raw scores were first processed using Multi -Faceted Rasch Measurement to estimate inter- and intra-rater consistency and generate adjusted (fair) measures. Based on these measures, descriptive analyses, sequential multiple regression, and Structural Equation Modeling were conducted (in that order). The analyses verified the writing tasks ' underlying component constructs and assessed their relative contributions to the overall integrated writing scores. Both tasks were found to contribute to DET 's construct representation and add moderate predictive power to the domain performance. The findings, along with their practical implications, are discussed, especially regarding the complex relations between construct representation and predictive validity. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

Task representation denotes students' interpretation in which what a learning or assessment task required them to do. An argumentative integrated writing task which involves the use of reading materials as claims or evidences for composing an essay, makes the role of task representation more critical than others, as writers may be confused with whether their task is to focus on synthesizing the reading materials that they comprehend, or expressing their own views. With the aim of exploring the characteristics of task representation and its association with integrated writing, this study invited 474 secondary four students from Hong Kong to participate in think aloud writing protocol followed by stimulated recall interview (36 participants), and complete an integrated writing task and a questionnaire (438 participants). Three factors of the task representation were identified as source use, rhetorical purpose and text format, and significant positive correlations were found between the three factors and integrated writing performance. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.