With a paradigm shift from a focus on product to one on process in language assessment, assessment for learning (AfL) has been gaining currency in educational policy in different parts of the world. While AfL emphasizes the use of assessment for improving learning and teaching, assessment of learning (AoL) focuses on using assessment for administrative and reporting purposes. In L2 writing, assessment has traditionally been characterized by AoL. Although AfL strategies like process pedagogy, formative feedback, peer response, and conferences have been promoted in L2 writing, these strategies are not widely adopted outside North American educational contexts. In English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, there is scanty research that investigates writing teachers' attempts to bring innovation to their assessment practices through a focus on AfL. Using data from four Secondary 1 (i.e. Grade 7) classrooms in a Hong Kong school, the study aimed to investigate how the teachers' determination to implement AfL in writing influenced their instructional and assessment practices and impacted on students' attitudes and beliefs regarding writing. Results show that the implementation of AfL resulted in a significant change in teachers' instructional and assessment practices, and students improved their motivation in writing. The paper concludes with a few implications for EFL writing.
[Copyright of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2010.502232]

Despite its popularity in other countries, like America and Canada, peer editing is considered quite 'avant-garde' in the Hong Kong academic community and has never been a common practice in local secondary schools' classrooms. This paper will try to unveil the reasons why a number of Hong Kong English teachers are reluctant to use peer-editing. It is hypothesized that any positive experience of peer editing among teachers themselves is an impetus to use peer editing in class. Based on this hypothesis, a brief survey was carried out to examine a group of fifteen student-teachers' attitudes who had taken a second language writing course in a graduate school's setting, in which peer-editing activities of each other's work over six weeks, in six one-hour blocks, were conducted. Reservations concerning adopting peer-editing were observed among the student-teachers' future classes. All forms of resistance and reservations, according to the participants, were claimed to derive from external constraints. A closer look, however, suggests that none of these given constraints were purely external. Rather, I believe these teachers might have either been prejudiced or neglected 'locus of control', which refers to the possible control and power a teacher possess over their classes. This paper looks at both the teachers' personalities, characterized by skeptical beliefs in peer-editing, and the external constraints from the local social situations that contribute to the resistance and reluctance of teachers implementing peer editing in Hong Kong's education institutions.
[Copyright of English Language Teaching is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/index]

Background: In most primary schools in Hong Kong, a product-oriented approach is used in teaching writing. The process approach to writing has been seen as an improvement over the traditional methods of writing instruction in recent years. However, the effectiveness of using the process approach to teach writing is still inconclusive. It is necessary to confirm its effectiveness through further research studies.
Aims: This study investigates how effective process writing is in helping about 200 students in the upper primary school level and the lower primary school level improve their writing skills and their attitude towards writing.
Sample and method: Six primary school teachers, 3 in the lower primary school level and 3 in the upper primary school level, each implemented an innovative two-month process writing programme in her school. The effectiveness of the programme was investigated through post-interviews and the comparison of a pre- and post-questionnaire, a pre-test and a post-test, and pre- and post- observations of the strategies used by the students in doing their pre-tests and post-tests.
Results: It is found that the programme brought about positive results across all classes and in both the upper and lower level in general though the results in each classroom slightly differed.
Conclusions/Recommendations: The process approach seems to be an effective approach even at as low a level as P.3 in the primary school. Process writing seems to be a feasible solution to heightening the writing abilities and confidence of students, especially those who have higher English proficiency and those at the upper primary level.
背景：香港大多數小學都採用成果取向的方法去教導寫作，近年視採用歷程取向的方法去教導寫作是傳統教導寫作的改良，但是否有效卻未有定論，需要作進一步的研究。
目的：這研究探討歷程取向的寫作方法對改進二百位小學生的改進技巧及態度是否有效。
取樣及方法：六位小學教師，三位任教初小、三位任教高小，在其學校試教一個為期兩個月有關歷程取向寫作方法的新課程，研究者採用測試後面談、比較試前和試後問卷調查、測驗成績、及觀察學生在測試前後的學習策略等多元方法，去尋找歷程取向寫作方法的有效性。
結果：發現各測驗觀察都稍微偏向支援歷程取向寫作方法。
討論和建議：歷程取向寫作方法似乎是一個較有效的教學法去提昇學生的寫作能力及信心

Many teachers of English as a second language (ESL) have begun to perceive the place of collaborative writing in the teaching of writing. With the development of Internet-based resources such as blogs and forums, learners have begun to adapt to online writing and to use tools that supports such activity. Teachers are beginning to perceive the value of this and consequently such resources have begun to be incorporated into the teaching of ESL writing by getting students - as yet, mainly on an individual basis - to write e-mails, express their ideas on forums, and create web pages. An extension to these individual writing activities involves the incorporation of Internet resources into cooperative writing, where more than one learner produces a text jointly. The current study explores these issues in the use of wikis, and how wikis may be utilised in a group writing task. The paper describes a case study in a Hong Kong postsecondary institute where over the course of a month, groups of learners produced a report based on survey data they had collected. The outcome of the project was generally successful - in that groups produced more cogent documents than had previous groups who had worked in a pen-and-paper format. Nonetheless, a number of issues concerning the running of the project arose that need to be addressed for collaborative writing with wikis to be successfully implemented. While the study took place in a post-secondary institute, the use of wikis holds good across secondary level forms, with implications for their use at different levels discussed and elaborated.
很多教授英語為第二語言的教師漸漸認識協作式寫作在寫作教學中的作用。隨著互聯網上的資源發展，例如討論區及網路日誌，學習者開始適應網上寫作，及使用相關的支援工具。教師看到網上協作寫作的價值，逐漸將這些資源融合於英語寫作教學，籍此推動學生 (主要以個人方式) 寫電郵、在討論區發表意見及創作網頁。這種個人寫作活動的延展需要將網上資源融合於協作式寫作，即多名學習者合力創作一篇文章。是項研究探討使用維基於寫作教學，及如何把維基運用在小組寫作。這篇文章描述了在香港一所專上學院的個案。個案中幾個學生小組在一個月內以他們在調查所得的數據寫報告，結果令人滿意，這些小組比以往那些使用紙筆式寫作的小組創作的報告更佳。然而要成功地將維基運用在協作式寫作，我們有需要解決協作寫作所產生的問題。是項研究雖然探討專上學生運用維基寫作，然而在中學各級應用維基的情況也是良好的。本研究亦討論不同英語程度學生應用維基於寫作的效果