Development of an exemplar-based writing instruction textbook for teaching IELTS writing

This presentation focuses on an innovative approach to writing instruction, exemplar-based writing instruction and is divided into two parts: (1) a systematic review of recent literature on the use of exemplar in higher education contexts using a text-mining software called Leximancer and (2) an introduction of an ongoing teaching development grant project being conducted in a Hong Kong university which aims to develop an exemplar-based textbook and online platform to be used by university English instructors to teach IELTS writing. In the first session, the speakers will present a systematic review of current literature on exemplar use in univesity writing classrooms to highlight its affordances and limitations. Different from traditional systematic review which is criticized as lack of ‘methodological rigor’ (Major & Savin-Baden, 2011, p. 647) and ‘subjectivity in data analysis and the interpretation of findings’ (Thomas, 2014, p. 236), this review of literature is done using a text-mining software named Leximancer. Leximancer was selected as the tool because it has been used in educational research (e.g. distance education, physical education, general education) (Hyndman & Pill, 2017; Zawacki-Richter & Naidu, 2016). Additionally, Leximancer is chosen over other similar tools (e.g. Rapidminer) because of its user-friendliness. Leximancer can automatically generate a list of most frequently-appeared word-level concepts that appear in the selected documents and a concept map which shows the relationship between those concepts after completing a few simple steps. In the second session, an ongoing grant project will be introduced which focuses on the development of curriculum materials for university English instructors to implement exemplarbased instruction in their academic writing classrooms. Focusing on IELTS writing, sample materials developed by the presenters will be shared. Copyright © 2018 International Conference on Bilingual Learning and Teaching.