Options
Assessing narratives using the genre-register framework : a study of four primary school teachers' experiences
Author
Saraswathy Idamban
Supervisor
Teo, Peter
Abstract
This research aims to provide empirical evidence supporting the propositions made by Macken and Slade (1993) that the genre-register assessment framework provides teachers with a specific and explicit language to identify genre-register specific problems in their students' writing. It enables them to provide more specific feedback to students' writing in terms of the stages and language features directly related to the texts and therefore is a viable alternative to the existing composition assessment framework. Most of the local research on the use of the genre-register assessment framework has been limited to the researchers themselves demonstrating the framework's usefulness in response to the inadequacy or unsuitability of the existing assessment procedures in providing text-specific feedback rather than trialling the framework on teachers, the end-users of the framework. This research attempts to fill this gap by investigating the efficacy and viability of the genre-register assessment framework four the point of view of four teachers in a local primary school. The results of the study indicate that with the use of the genre-register assessment framework teachers are able to identify genre-register-specific problems in their students' writing and provide more text-specific feedback compared to the current composition assessment framework. However, there are certain contextual factors related to the 'examination-type literacy' (Cheah 1994, 1998) that have constrained teachers from using the genre-register framework in teaching and assessing writing in the mainstream curriculum and these would have to be addressed before framework can be applied successful in Singapore schools.
Date Issued
2003
Call Number
PE1068.S55 Sar
Date Submitted
2003