Building a Singapore learner corpus of English writing for pedagogy

This project seeks to (1) build a learner corpus of English writing by collecting sample language data at Primary 6, Secondary 4, and Junior College 2 levels; (2) generate linguistic profiles for these stages and analyze/compare lexical, grammatical and discoursal features across these stages to track the development of English writing; (3) inform the learning, teaching and curriculum design of English writing; and (4) contribute to the theorization on the nature of writing development (Christie & Derewianka, 2008). It attempts to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the lexical, grammatical, stylistic, and discoursal features of the English writing produced by students at Primary 6, Secondary 4, and Junior College 2?

2. Are there any differences in the language produced by students from different developmental stages? If yes, what are the differences and what is the nature of such differences?

3. Within each developmental stage, are there any differences in terms of lexical, grammatical, and discoursal features in the writing from students of different gender and ethnic groups? If yes, how are they different?

4. To what extent do these features reflect students’ development of English proficiency in general and their development of writing skills in particular?

5. Are there any differences in English writing processes, perception of difficulty in English writing and perceived use of writing strategies among the students from the three educational levels? Are there any gender differences in these variables among the students from the same level? How are these variables related to writing performance?

6. What pedagogic implications do these analyses have for the English teaching and learning in Singapore? What implications do these analyses have for curriculum development for English language education?