Stating intended learning outcomes explicitly in assessment descriptors to enhance students’ language accuracy in writing

A study of English examiners’ reports of candidates’ performance in university entrance examinations in Hong Kong often reveals the issue of weak language accuracy in their writing work. It is hence essential for language enhancement programmes in universities to help undergraduates improve the accuracy of their writing. In one university in Hong Kong, an attempt to address this issue was made through stating explicitly language accuracy features that differentiate stronger and weaker writers. The objective of the approach is to provide a marking scheme and at the same time a checklist for teachers’ convenience in giving formative feedback to students’ writing performance. The idea may sound straight forward but there were various challenges. Apart from deciding what to be stated and how comprehensive the statements should be in a marking scheme format, one obvious challenge was the interpretation of the term ‘language accuracy’. In the current study, language accuracy has been defined according to discriminating features identified in analyses of the language performance of stronger and weaker test takers. Such definitions may be different from the ones usually adopted by experienced teachers and hence may mean a change in mindset for some. Other challenges included teachers’ expectation of the role played by assessment marking schemes and the distinction between teaching and assessing. Using assessments to inform teaching may not be intuitive for some teachers. This paper will present the difficulty in adopting existing marking schemes to address the mentioned issue, the steps taken in developing assessment descriptors and evaluation findings from teachers and students on the effectiveness of the approach. Preliminary growth study findings on students’ language accuracy performance will also be presented.