Integrated writing is increasingly used in language assessment programmes. As a hybrid task, it requires students to coordinate different language skills, i.e. listening, reading and writing, to retrieve information from multiple sources, and compose an essay for a specific purpose. Tapping into the varied skills that contribute to successful integrated writing is especially beneficial for low proficiency students. However, the mechanisms underlying the impact of these skills on integrated writing performance have yet to be thoroughly studied. This study sampled 103 first-year undergraduate students in Hong Kong who showed relatively low proficiency in Chinese language. They completed three independent tasks measuring their listening, reading, and writing skills; an integrated listening-reading-writing task; and an integrated writing strategy use questionnaire. The results indicated that together, the independent skills accounted for 29.5% of the variance in integrated writing performance, suggesting that integrated writing is a skill that goes far beyond the simple combination of listening, reading, and writing. Independent writing showed the strongest correlation with integrated writing, while both independent listening and independent writing exerted direct and indirect effects on integrated writing performance. However, the effect of reading on integrated writing performance was insignificant, even though the two were significantly correlated. These results offer insights into the complex relationships between the skills. The findings enrich our understanding of the construct of integrated writing, as well as suggest strategies for teaching less proficient learners. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Given the increasing awareness of oral communication in this era of globalized collaborative learning trends, there is an imminent need to inform language educators of ways in which the under-researched oral interactional strategies are related to first language (L1) teaching. However, no consensus has yet been reached on the relationship between interactional strategy use and oral language proficiency. This study investigates the effect of oral interactional strategy use on group discussion performance in L1 Chinese for Primary 5 students (N = 140) in Hong Kong. Based on ANOVA and regression analyses of the data on group discussion performance, five strategies have been identified: expressing actively, asking for opinion, expressing attitude, giving clarification and non-verbal language. They all significantly predicted students’ group discussion performance, with overall strategies explaining 55.5% of total variation of the performance, where higher-proficiency students tended to use more strategies that enable comprehension and elaboration in the group discussions. The patterns of strategy use among students with different levels of discussion performance have also been identified. Implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the roles individuals play in the overall performance of group discussion. Copyright © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Students' progress in reading comprehension is a crucial goal in language education, and teaching comprehension processes to students is considered to be one of the most effective approaches to improving students' reading ability. To facilitate teachers' use of the Comprehension Process Model (CPM), it is necessary to identify teachers' stages of concerns about using the model, which has not been investigated systematically in language teaching. This study investigated Hong Kong (HK) Chinese-language teachers' concerns about using the CPM in their teaching of reading in secondary schools. The Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) was administered and 347 completed questionnaires were suitable for analysis. The study has found that teachers demonstrated a profile with multiple peaks, which shows highest concerns at the collaboration and informational stages in the Stages of Concern (SoC) model. The result implies that teachers realize that they need to learn more about the CPM and to enhance collaboration with their colleagues to implement it effectively. Teachers' concerns varied according to demographic factors including training on the CPM, years of using the CPM, years of teaching expe-rience, and richness of experience in using the CPM. Implications for developing more effective professional development interventions for Chinese-language teachers are also discussed. Copyright © 2016 International Association for Research in L1 Education.