This study used item response modelling to develop measures of the development of proficiency in speaking, reading and writing English among Hong Kong primary students. Home and family background factors were identified that could be linked to higher than average levels of development in proficiency across two school years, from Primary One to Primary Two or from Primary Two to Primary Three. Participants were 2133 Hong Kong students and their parents, sampled from 140 primary schools that had employed a native-speaking teacher of English to work with the students. Higher than average improvement in English proficiency was associated with the students' attitudes to learning, their opportunities to use English in everyday life, access to books in any language at home and school, parents' level of education and parents' support of their child's English studies. The year level and gender of the student also interacted with home background factors in predicting development of second language acquisition.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

A number of studies have examined the process and product of writing instruction under different conditions. Fewer studies have investigated the development of knowledge and its relationship to writing performance. While some writers may be able to draw upon knowledge of text in their writing, others do not possess this knowledge and yet others may possess the knowledge but fail to draw on it. This study explores the development of and relationship between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge among a group of 36 Hong Kong Chinese ESL learners in a three-month university writing course. The interaction of awareness of writing effectiveness with writing performance was investigated. Subjects of high and low English proficiency were put in either self- or peer-editing groups. They wrote reflective journals demonstrating their awareness of effective writing of short paragraphs and complete essays. Results suggested that both awareness of and ability in effective writing were enhanced after the course. High proficiency students and peer-editing groups demonstrated greater awareness and performed better in the writing tasks. Knowing and doing in ESL writing were found to be significantly related among proficient and peer-editing groups.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/la365/0]