This study, which is part of a large-scale study of using objective measures to validate assessment rating scales and assessment tasks in a high-profile school-based assessment initiative in Hong Kong, examined how grammatical complexity measures relate to task type and analytic evaluations of students' speaking proficiency in a classroom-based assessment context. An in-depth analysis of oral performance on two different assessment tasks (i.e., monologic vs. interactive) from 30 English as a Second Language, Cantonese-mother-tongue, secondary school students was conducted using a range of measures of grammatical complexity derived from the previous second language (L2) speaking and writing studies. Results showed that the individual presentation task tended to promote not only a greater number of T-units, clauses, verb phrases, and words but also longer T-units and utterances, thus probably stretching learners more in terms of complexity of grammatical and lexical processing. Results also showed that complexity measures recommended as among the most useful complexity measures demonstrated no significant correlations with analytic ratings of learner speaking proficiency. These findings were then discussed in light of the complex, dynamic, and developmental nature of grammatical complexity as well as in light of a learner-, task-, and L2 form-sensitive account of L2 oral production.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2010.516041]

This study investigates the challenges sixteen non-native preservice English as a second language (ESL) teachers in a Bachelor of Education (English Language) (BEdEL) program from Hong Kong experienced in an eight-week teaching practicum. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were collected from all 16 participants to obtain a detailed description of the participants' perceptions of their field-based practicum experiences. Results indicate that the preservice teachers' practicum was characterised by a reality shock due to difficulties in experimenting with pedagogical practices they were taught in the BEdEL program, and a lack of sense of control in class. This reality shock could destabilise the already anxious student teachers and have adverse effects well beyond the eight-week teaching practicum. Inadequacy in English language competence also appeared to affect not only these student teachers' teaching performance but also how they established and maintained their teacher role and relationship with their students. Implications of the results for strengthening current ESL teacher preparation programs in non-native English speaking contexts are discussed.
[Copyright of Australian Journal of Teacher Education is the property of School of Education, Edith Cowan University. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n3.3/]