Since the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, English has remained an official language and been formally referred to as a second language, though in reality it has, arguably, the status of a foreign language. This is especially true for writing because students do not have to write in English outside the classroom.…

This paper reviews and reflects on developments in classroom-based research on second or foreign language (L2) writing from 2001 to 2020, based on scholarship drawn from the "Journal of Second Language Writing," the flagship journal of the field. The review covers a total of 75 classroom-based studies and examines the major research…

Although previous studies have examined the impact of online formative assessment on second language learners' writing development, scant attention has been paid to how writing teachers engage with online formative assessment and the influencing factors. By exploring three English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing teachers' engagement with…

To date, research on feedback in second language (L2) writing has primarily focused on feedback per se, with little attention paid to the teachers' professional development with regard to feedback in writing. This study aims to explore the ways in which two secondary teachers in Hong Kong attempted to implement feedback innovation in their writing…

This article reviews research on peer feedback in second language (L2) writing published in the last decade (i.e. 2005-2014). We analyse first the theoretical underpinnings that have informed both peer feedback research and the pedagogical use of peer feedback in L2 writing instruction. We also provide a critical interpretation of existing peer…

While research on teacher feedback has largely been influenced by second language writing and second language acquisition perspectives, little attention has been paid to the contextual and sociocultural dimension of teachers' work. Overall, there is a dearth of discussion on teacher feedback that is influenced by sociocultural perspectives.…

In second language writing, not much attention has been given to the English as a foreign language (EFL) primary context. This short research report describes the implementation of a writing curriculum project in a primary school in Hong Kong, where a team of EFL teachers attempted to overhaul the traditional product approach and implemented…

Feedback in writing has in recent years attracted the attention of an increasing number of writing researchers. While much feedback research focuses on the act of feedback per se, little attention has been paid to the issue of teacher readiness to implement change in feedback. Using data gathered from Hong Kong secondary teachers attending a…

Although second language (L2) teachers spend a significant amount of time marking students' writing, many of them feel that their efforts do not pay off. While students want teachers to give them feedback on their writing and value teacher feedback, they might experience feelings of frustration and confusion once they receive it. What is amiss in…

This study investigates how genre can be used as an organisational principle to interweave teaching and assessment in the L2 school context. Relying on data from interviews and lesson observations gathered from two Secondary 1 (that is, Grade 7) Hong Kong classrooms, the study sought to discover how teachers implemented genre-based teaching and…

In studies of L2 writing, much more attention has been paid to the needs of students learning to write than to teachers learning to teach. In EFL contexts, while much research is geared towards helping learners cope with the challenges of writing in a foreign language, studies on EFL writing teacher education are few and far between. We have…

In second-language writing, assessment has traditionally focused on the written products and how well (or badly) students perform in writing. Teachers dominate the assessment process as testers, while students remain passive testees. Assessment is something teachers "do to" rather than '"with" students, mainly for…

While research on portfolio assessment (PA) has focused largely on the summative aspects of writing assessment, not much has been done to find out its formative potential. Drawing upon student questionnaires and student and teacher interview data, this paper aims to explore the formative functions of PA and, specifically, how the formative…

Assessment for learning (AfL) is a relatively new concept in ESL/EFL writing. In AfL, learning is a goal in its own right, and assessment is the means to achieving the goal. Despite an emphasis on assessment the concept AfL appears to suggest, in implementing AfL teachers need to integrate teaching, learning and assessment rather than focus…

While much of L2 teacher feedback research has focused on the effectiveness of feedback and its impact on student revision and writing, little has been done to examine teachers' feedback in the larger classroom context of teaching and learning to ascertain the functions teacher feedback serves from an assessment-for-learning perspective. Using…