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What does Text Selection in the HKDSE Reading Comprehension Paper Say about the Exam?

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The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination is a high-stakes matriculation system that determines the opportunity for higher education and social mobility for most local students. This means that content featured in the tests poses strong washback effects on classroom teaching and learning. Despite the fact that the Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) recognizes the effects of washback and the necessity to use it in a positive way, certain aspects within the HKDSE English Language Reading Comprehension paper might have been overlooked. This paper looks at the genres, text sources and topics featured by the HKDSE examination since its inception in 2011. It finds that while there is an effort to diversify the topics featured and ensure their appropriacy to local candidates, the Authority falls short in utilizing a wide enough range of text genres in its examinations, possibly leading to narrowed English reading abilities in the population. Additionally, texts are also usually selected from sources that favor affluent, professional demographics, which has possible implications for the fairness of the test.
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THE JOURNAL OF ASIA TEFL
Vol. 17, No. 4, Winter 2020, 1392-1404
http://dx.doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2020.17.4.15.1392
1392
The Journal of Asia TEFL
http://journal.asiatefl.org/
e-ISSN 2466-1511 © 2004 AsiaTEFL.org. All rights reserved.
What does Text Selection in the HKDSE Reading
Comprehension Paper Say about the Exam?
Man-Chit Chak
The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination is a high-stakes
matriculation system that determines the opportunity for higher education and social mobility for most
local students. This means that content featured in the tests poses strong washback effects on
classroom teaching and learning. Despite the fact that the Hong Kong Examination and Assessment
Authority (HKEAA) recognizes the effects of washback and the necessity to use it in a positive way,
certain aspects within the HKDSE English Language Reading Comprehension paper might have been
overlooked. This paper looks at the genres, text sources and topics featured by the HKDSE
examination since its inception in 2011. It finds that while there is an effort to diversify the topics
featured and ensure their appropriacy to local candidates, the Authority falls short in utilizing a wide
enough range of text genres in its examinations, possibly leading to narrowed English reading abilities
in the population. Additionally, texts are also usually selected from sources that favor affluent,
professional demographics, which has possible implications for the fairness of the test.
Keywords: assessment, reading comprehension, text selection, Hong Kong, Genre theory,
washback effect, fairness in testing
Introduction
The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) is a standard-referenced
testing system that is used to certify the completion of secondary education (Tong & Luo, 2020) and
gatekeep students’ entry to tertiary courses. Its annual results determine the social mobility of graduates
and the relative rankings of schools, which translate into profound, often financially-related impact on
candidates and educators alike. In the formal education system, schools are highly incentivized to modify
their practices according to perceived formats and patterns of the examination in essence, the materials
used in examinations determine the curriculums of students, in terms of what to read and where to read
from. The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) seems aware of this, but does
it use this influence in a manner that promotes its stated aims, as well as the overall benefits of students in
the territory?
This paper focuses on selection of texts in the Reading Comprehension component of the HKDSE
English Language paper, and discusses its choices from the perspective of genre, source types, and
content area to evaluate how it might be directing teaching practices of the English curriculum in Hong
Kong.
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Literature Review
Stated Outcomes of the HKDSE English Subject
According to the EDB’s Curriculum and Assessment Guide, the HKDSE English curriculum seeks to
provide leaners with the opportunities for “personal and intellectual development, further studies,
pleasure and work in the English medium” (HKEAA, 2007, p. 2). The guide suggests strongly the need
for variety, appropriacy to learner’s age and roles in society, and bringing a multitude of experiences in
particular by featuring a “broad range of activities and materials”, including those based on creative and
imaginative texts. In addition, the recommended texts list for the SBA component, which recommends
English canon classics such as Dracula, Emma, and Romeo and Juliet for use in the classroom, again
emphasizes that readings in the curriculum should be pleasurable for students, age-appropriate and “have
some relevance to the life and experience of students” (HKEAA, 2009, p. 1).
The HKEAA acknowledges the role of washback in its designs, and states in its School-Based
Assessment (SBA) handbook that an aim of the Authority is that “there is beneficial washback on
teaching and learning” (HKEAA, 2020, p. 2). Thus, it can be surmised that the Authority does actively
seek to improve the achievement of its stated learning outcomes through the designs of its exams.
Washback Effect in the Hong Kong context
The “washback” effect of high-stakes examinations has been the subject of more than two decade of
studies illustrating its effects and implications (Hughes, 1989; Alderson & Wall, 1993). Davies (1985) in
particular suggests that the more important a test is, the more intense this effect of washback. This has led
to the belief that there is a responsibility for authors of tests to take this effect into consideration (Messick,
1996), and that ‘a well-designed test should encourage good teaching’ (Green, 2013, p. 41).
Hong Kong’s education system has a history of being very susceptible to washback. Cheng (1997)
found that when the previous public examination format was changed in 1994, up to 84% of teachers
stated the changes would influence their classroom methodology. A majority of students (30%) also
reflected that public examination was the major goal of their studies. This reflects the huge impact that
the HKEAA indirectly has over practices in the classroom. In addition, Bailey (1999) discovered that
washback in Hong Kong applied to textbook publishers as well, who at the time had started the
production of audio materials to emulate the change of format in language testing.
The HKDSE is yet another sweeping curriculum change that was introduced in 2012. Despite a stated
focus in being less reliant on high-stakes examinations, most evident through the expansion of the SBA
components where assessment is done in the classroom, its washback effect has proven to be no less
powerful than previous iterations. This is evident in the private education sector, populated by more than
1000 tutorial schools that practically brags about their exam-focused teaching strategies:
Through analysis of the answers in the marking schemes set by the examination body, the Hong
Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, tutors teach skills to answer questions and obtain
the highest possible marks. In most cases, the main approach of tutorial schools is to hone their
students’ skills in doing the tasks required in the different papers of different subjects. (Eng, 2019, p.
82)
This approach of a high focus on exams, seemingly for exams’ sake, in both the official and
commercial sectors of education is in stark contrast to the referenced curriculum of the HKEAA that
promises learning English for applications beyond itself. While topics such as the broader effects of an
intense examination culture are beyond the scope of this paper, the phenomenon should at least show that
it behooves the Authority to direct this influence towards its stated goals.
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Related Perspectives from Genre Theory
As mentioned above, the test papers of the HKDSE face intense scrutiny by educators in both the
private and public sectors. One significant design choice made in every iteration of the reading
comprehension exam is the selection of text sources.
Although there are many elements that affect a text’s viability as an exam passage, I would like to
focus on the topic of genre in this paper. Genre theory (Duff, 2014; Chandler, 1997; Swales, 1990)
observes that texts are communicative acts that take form of loose, but identifiably familiar patterns of
features. Although the definitions of individual genres are in constant flux over time and the
differentiation of media, they remain recognizable in their contemporary contexts of use as ‘families’ of
structures.
These distinct structures support the coherence of the text as a whole (Kiray, 2015), and readers start
the process of reading by recognizing that a text belongs to a certain text type (Huckin, 1997), which
informs them on the type of reading practices (such as pace, linearity, or selectivity of information) that
would be most helpful in navigating the information within the text (Paris & Stahl, 2005).
What is significant about genre in comprehension testing is that reading skills are fairly genre-specific
(Duke & Roberts, 2010). Paris & Stahl (ibid. p. 98) also state that the genre of a text has a profound
impact on the comprehension process, and note in particular that test scores are highly sensitive towards
this impact. This notion is supported by Pearson & Hamm (2005)’s findings that school-age children in
the U.S. consistently test stronger in their comprehension of narrative texts than informational texts,
pointing to the non-transferable nature of reading skills between genres.
It is with these facts in mind that we must consider the influence of text selection in the HKDSE on
teaching. Faced with practical limitations such as time, students’ starting abilities and accessibility of
materials, teachers are all but forced to allocate the most resources towards the teaching of genres that
would allow their students to perform well in public exams. It would be sensible to suggest that in a way,
the most popular genres to be featured in the HKDSE would also thus be the most highly-taught ones.
From the perspective of the highest level of curriculum planners in the HKEAA, these text types should
be carefully chosen to benefit candidates the most in their language learning.
Text Selection in the HKDSE
Genres Represented
The texts used in the HKDSE examination are published as part of the HKEAA’s past papers collection.
Although the HKEAA often makes changes to the texts, these are generally superficial modifications to
the titles only, and are generally done to make the texts less reliant on references from outside the texts.
The genres named in this paper follows what is set out by Macken-Horarik (2001), which classifies
texts according to their social purposes, location, and schematic structure. She lists in particular 8 key
genres that are significant in the classroom context:
Recount
Information report
Explanation
Exposition
Discussion
Procedure
Narrative
News Story
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This classification is sufficiently comprehensive to cover all of the texts selected for the HKDSE
reading comprehension papers, although there are some distinctions between texts classed under the same
genre, they do not contribute significantly to the analysis done in this paper.
The HKDSE featured a total of 47 text passages between the years 2012 and 2020. The number of texts
included each year differs, but the three parts of the paper Part A, Part B1 and Part B2 all feature at
least one text each. As Part A is compulsory and candidates only attempt either Part B1 or B2, each
candidate thus has to read at least 2 texts as part of the examination.
In some years, one part of a paper may feature multiple texts, though they are always related either
directly or thematically. In 2016, for example, two short articles on the topic of food trucks followed by
three short letters to the editors are featured. In this paper, each of these count as distinct instances of texts.
Figure 1. Genres of HKDSE Reading Comprehension texts (2012 2020).
As seen in Figure 1, of the 47 texts featured in the Reading Comprehension Paper of the HKDSE,
40.4% (19) consist of News Stories, which by far make up the largest proportion of genres in the exam.
The second-most common genre is Expositions, making up 29.8% (14) of texts used. The other genres
show up at a significantly lower percentage, with Explanations at 12.8% (6) and Narratives at 8.5% (4).
Procedures, Recounts, Discussions and Information Reports all featured at a mere 2.1% (1) each.
Sources Used
The sources used in the HKDSE reading comprehension are made public by the HKEAA after each
examination cycle. In most cases, these texts are available for online retrieval from their original
publication sources. However, paywalled articles from subscription magazines do make up a significant
portion of text sources.
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Figure 2. Names of sources used in the HKDSE Reading Comprehension Exam (2012 2020).
Figure 2 shows the names of all text sources used in the paper. There are 35 sources in total used across
all the years that the HKDSE has been implemented, and in nearly all occasions these are authentic texts
that are published to serve genuine communicative purposes. Only on 1 single occasion an original text
was used in 2019 to emulate a public library’s activities schedule. There are however also 2 cases where
texts seem to have been adapted from the online comments sections of the main text of the exam as
supplementary material, and in these cases the original comments cannot be found. The source of 1 text
from the exam year of 2020, a procedural guide on flying kites, remains unpublished at the time of
writing.
Of note is that fact that though repeated use of text sources is rare, the South China Morning Post
(SCMP) is featured quite frequently, with 8 uses over the years which amounts to 17% of the entire
exam’s history. Although 3 of these uses occur in the same year in 2016, it still shows that the SCMP is a
relatively common resource for examination purposes in Hong Kong. Other Hong Kong-based sources
used consist of The Standard, an English newspaper, and CUHK Varsity, a publication of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong. Both have only been used once each.
International news outlets from the Anglosphere feature quite prominently. Sources of this category
that have seen repeated use include The New York Times, the Guardian, and Forbes, which are all high-
profile, internationally-renown English journalism outlets. Other widely recognized sources of similar
reputation include the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Economist.
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TABLE 1
Types of Sources Used in the HKDSE Reading Comprehension Exam (2012 2020)
Sources
Source Type
Frequency
Blog
1
Totally Stolkholm
Blog
1
Business Report
1
Talent Economy
Business Report
1
Comments Section
2
Discussion Comments
Comments
2
Forum
1
GeoExpat
Forum
1
Government
1
Law Access NSW
Government
1
Journal
2
Skeptical Inquirer
Journal
1
Millersville University
Journal
1
Magazine
9
National Geographic Society
Magazine
1
Zolimacitymag
Magazine
1
Marie Claire
Magazine
1
Indesignlive
Magazine
1
CUHK Varsity
Magazine
1
Forbes Media LLC
Magazine
2
The Economist
Magazine
1
Telegraph UK
Magazine
1
Newspaper
20
The Nation
Newspaper
1
SCMP
Newspaper
8
Wall Street Journal
Newspaper
1
The New York Times
Newspaper
2
theGuardian
Newspaper
2
Voice of America
Newspaper
1
The Washington Post
Newspaper
1
The Standard
Newspaper
1
Newsweek
Newspaper
1
The New Yorker
Newspaper
1
National Public Radio
Newspaper
1
Original
2
Original (emulated text)
Original
1
Source unclear
Original
1
Presentation
1
Goldman Sachs
Presentation
1
Publisher
3
Penguin Books
Publisher
1
Publicism
Publisher
1
Picador Classic
Publisher
1
Website
4
Flash Fiction Online
Website
1
Projectbritain
Website
1
Rentokil (Pest Control)
Website
1
Amazon Booklist
Website
1
Table 1 shows the type of sources used by the HKDSE. It is very clear that the examination heavily
favours newspapers, with 20 out of 46 (43%) texts selected from them. The next most popular source type
is magazines, taking up 9 instances out of 46 (20%). These sources generally cover a similar scope of
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current events and societal trends as newspapers, but often utilize a more narrative style and goes into
more detail. They also are published less frequently, and therefore focus less on immediate “breaking
news” types of articles for more analytical texts.
If the above two types of sources are viewed as a whole, it can be seen that journalistic articles
comprise of 63% of all texts used in the HKDSE reading comprehension exams. It is worth mentioning
here that many of these resources are gated behind “paywalls” or subscriptions, and are often unavailable
to school-aged students unless the school or their parents purchase these subscriptions.
Other source types that make up noteworthy amounts include publishers such as Penguin Books and
Publicism (3 out of 46, 7%), in the form of excerpts from print fiction or non-fiction books that are
generally read for entertainment. Websites featured 4 times in total (9%). The content of these texts is
quite disparate, ranging from a guide on insect bites to an Amazon Booklist book review. These texts,
however, are ‘genuine’ in the sense that they are less commercially presented, and are more likely to be
representative of readings that students might stumble upon as part of their daily online activities.
Topic of Texts
The topics covered in the reading comprehension exam can be broken into 12 broad categories,
referring to the areas of interest of their content. As the topic and subject-matter of the texts affect the
experiential constructs of the language used for example, a text related to business and economics
would feature more vocabulary items related to financial studiesthis too affects what will eventually be
taught by teachers in the classroom.
Figure 3. Topics of HKDSE Reading Comprehension Texts (2012 2020)
Figure 3 shows the topics that have been featured in the exam papers over the years. Of note are the
topics of Lifestyle and Society, which each have been featured 12 times over the 47 texts selected over
the years, making up a total of 51% of topics. Texts under the “Lifestyle” categorization mainly feature
food, recreational activities and hobbies. Meanwhile, texts categorized as “Society” are about emerging
social labels and trends such as “millenials” or “tiger mothers”.
The third biggest category on the figure is Social Science, which has been featured 5 out of 47 times
(10.6%). Social science articles discuss issues such as the concept of “messiness”, the implications of a
person’s social media updates, or the topic of “luck”. These usually feature the use of statistics and
studies that are simplified for laypersons, as well as narrative and rhetorical devices to attract the reader’s
attention.
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Other categories featured include “Life and relationship” (6.4%), “Environmental science” (6.4%),
“Nature” (4.3%), “Education” (4.3%), “Culture” (4.3%), “Music and culture” (4.3%), “Technology and
science” (2.1%), “Archaeology and culture” (2.1%) and “Business and economics” (2.1%). Though most
of these labels are self-evident of their content, it should be noted that “Culture” in particular refers to the
discussion of cultures and customs that would be considered foreign to the average HKDSE candidate
such as the discussion of common superstitions in the United Kingdom.
Discussion
Though overall the HKDSE sees visible effort towards a diversification of materials, there are clear
issues embedded within the text selection process. It is acknowledged that text selection for examinations
require considerations to ensure validity, reliability and other qualities that maintain the integrity of the
process. In addition, selected texts in even high stakes examinations do not necessarily directly translate
into a de facto curriculum. However, due to the circumstances of Hong Kong and indeed, many
similarly exam-oriented cultures around the world the following issues should nevertheless be taken
into account as visible trends for these exams emerge.
An Unbalanced Focus of Genres
It is clear that preferences exist in the genres that are covered by the HKDSE. Of note is that News
Stories and Expositions two of the eight genres featured take up 70% of all texts in the exam. These
two genres, generally located in outlets of journalism, explore issues that are ‘news-worthy’ and relevant
to society (Macken-Horarik, 2002). Though there are often good reasons to feature these them in the
language classroom such as their relevance to real-world events, relatively sophisticated level of
vocabulary, and inexhaustible nature as resources their inclusion to such an over-represented degree in a
high-stakes public exam carries risks.
Firstly, students may lose interest due to its lack of relevance to the genres of texts they actually
interact with in daily life. Literacy skills taught by teachers should aid students on their day-to-day
reading needs, which have changed with the increased popularity of the internet and social media.
Additionally, although readying students for employment in Hong Kong’s role of an international
business hub is a stated curriculum goal (HKEAA, 2007), and news stories and expositions can be seen as
“advance” or “business” materials that contribute to helping students step outside of their comfort zones,
the fact that they may contribute to any sort of post-secondary usefulness in the workplace cannot directly
be assumed.
Sources Favor Middle-age, High-income Demographics
News outlets such as the SCMP, the New York Times, Forbes Media and the Economists are some of
the most highly-used sources in the examination. Turning to these sources has the advantage of ensuring
that texts are of a high quality in terms of content and language. However, the sheer amount of use they
have seen over the years may cause schools to start favouring them in teaching as well, and they can
hardly be considered appropriate materials to Hong Kong secondary students in many respects.
According to the SCMP’s readers demographics report (South China Morning Post, 2020), 68% of
their readers are aged 30 or above. 49% of them hold qualifications of university level or higher, and 66%
have an annual family income of HK$792,000 and above, well above the city’s median of HK$336,000.
Forbes, another source featured in the exam, reports a similar demographic of readers (Forbes, 2016) that
has an average age of 46.5 years and an average income of US$93,434 (est. HK$721,000). This can be
seen with almost every news source used which all have target audiences of predominantly highly
educated, high net-worth individuals. In some cases, such as the Economist and the New Yorker, there is
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a gender bias as well the former has a 63% male readership, while the later has a 64% male one (Pew
Research Centre, 2012).
Reading habits are strongly linked with education levels, social-economic status and highly prone to
influence by family members (Baker, Scher, & Mackler, 1997; Fernandez-Blanco, Prieto-Rodriguez, &
Suarez-Pandiello, 2015; Le et al, 2019). Therefore, favoritism towards sources with such heavy
economical targeting could be heavily disadvantageous to students from families where the reading of
such sources is not routine. In addition to the obvious monetary barrier of paywalled magazines and
journals that would keep financially poorer students from access, students from families which these
commercial sources are intentionally marketed towards also have the advantage of increased exposure to
these texts, and thus also increased familiarity with their writing conventions and styles. This could create
a learning environment, both in school and in examinations, where candidates from lower income
families are further disadvantaged in addition to the many challenges that they are already contending
with.
Topics are Mostly Educational, Relatable and Appropriate
Despite the problems present in the aforementioned two categories of analysis, there is clear evidence
of effort in the selection of texts to ensure that the topics they cover are relevant, and appropriate to the
age-group of school-aged youths. “Lifestyle” is the most highly-represented subject-matter in the exam. A
large number of sources are about the topic of food, which is easily relatable. Though it can potentially be
mildly problematic, given that most school-aged children are not in control of their own diets. Other
specific topics in the same category include activities like kite-flying or board games cafes, which though
not especially relevant to the hobbies of youths, are niche enough that they are unlikely to significantly
favor any group of candidates.
In 2016, the exam prominently featured articles about the topic of food trucks across both B1 and B2
sections in essence making it an unavoidable topic for candidates to deal with. The introduction of
licensed food trucks under a government-supported scheme had been a controversial issue in Hong Kong
in 2015 making it a topic that most candidates could have conceivably become familiar with through
local news and other school subjects, especially in the compulsory Liberal Studies subject. This
demonstrates that there is an attempt to feature topical ideas in society that students can relate existing
knowledge to.
Many of the texts discuss social phenomena, and a clear attempt is seen in many years to select for
those that are age-appropriate to most candidates, such as tiger-parenting in 2012, Young Adults fiction in
2013, and discussions about “millennials” as a social label in 2017. Texts classified as “social science”
often feature issues that are pertinent to contemporary youths, such as social media updates in 2013,
higher education in 2014, and music’s effects on attention in 2018. The topics of selected texts are
generally appropriate for students. However, it should be noted that these discussions are often framed in
a journalistic or academic tone, making them more like a professional analysis of content and limiting the
instances where real-life happenings and issues are explored in a way that students would personally be
able to relate to such as through a narrative or a blog post.
Suggestions
This section covers some suggestions that can be taken into consideration to address the risks and
issues highlighted above.
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Selecting More Relevant Genres of Texts
An inclusion of texts that are more likely to be featured in studentsL1 reading habits in the
examination could encourage teaching of reading in the classroom that is more helpful to students. Wolk
(2010) points out that adolescents in the information age read “e-mails, text messages, and endless
websites”, while a study conducted by Hong Kong Publishing Professionals Society (HKPPS) finds that
posts on social media platforms (such as those on Instagram) are the most common items read by 40.5%
of readers under age 18 in Hong Kong (HKPPS, 2017, pp. 11). These genres contribute heavily to the
information-dense age that current students live in, and must not be ignored if the curriculum is to be
helpful towards how learners actually may use the English Language.
For assisting students’ adaptation to the use of English in the workplace, sample documents or email
correspondence may prove to be more helpful than currently-featured items. Evans (2013) observes there
is a heavy interplay of English, Cantonese and written Chinese in the professional lives of Hong Kongers,
and while English reading is done often, it involves emails, circulars and bank documents highly
interdependent, context-heavy text types rather than ones like news stories and expositions which have a
habit of providing ample subject orientation to the reader. Teachers must be encouraged to teach reading
skills that allow students to navigate these text types.
Using More Accessible and Appropriate Sources
Access to resources must be considered even at the exam setting stage, as its effects are inevitably and
eventually felt at the bottom of the curriculum chain. As mentioned above, overreliance on sources that
are behind paywalls can cause disadvantage to poorer students, which is compounded once washback
causes these sources to be incorporated into teaching. This is especially true for many Hong Kong schools
where newspaper and magazine subscriptions for material are not included in the school fees and must be
collected separately from parents. In these cases, their use as teaching material will be limited in districts
or schools where families are unwilling or unable to pay due to financial hardship.
Effort should be made by exam setters to rely on free, open, or public domain sources wherever
possible, which fortunately is quite a practical option with the proliferation of free-to-read media on the
internet in current times.
Limiting Privileged Knowledge Content
Stobart (2005) discusses the risk of planning assessment content that inadvertently only perpetuates the
experiences of those who have in turn been successful to date. Although it has been pointed out that the
area of topics is one where there is evidence of judicious selection and diversity, certain problems can still
be found.
Specifically, many topics and content used in the exam are covered by journals and sources that appeal
to professionals and academic audiences. There are also many instances of lifestyle content such as music,
or exploration of food culture that students from affluent backgrounds are more likely to have exposure to.
While these should not be completely avoided, as they make up valid content that students of all
background should become familiar with, their current dominance should be tempered somewhat.
Topics that are more in line with students’ experiences, such as how-to articles or guides, or excerpt
from books that are mostly read for pleasure, could be included more often. As mentioned before,
transactional content such as those featured in emails or texts may also be helpful as a source of practical
language use if it is encouraged to be taught in classrooms.
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Conclusion
This paper has discussed the issues that arise out of the selection of texts in the HKDSE English
Language Reading Comprehension paper over the years that the format has been implemented in Hong
Kong, between 2012 and 2020. The documentations of relevant government departments show an
awareness of the effects of backwash, and from the perspective of looking at the subject-matter of
selected text sources alone there is an effort to diversify the types of texts to ensure students are
incentivized to be exposed to variety and appropriate learning content in their reading curriculums.
However, analysis through genre theory, as well as an exploration of the sources of the texts expose some
trends that might have been overlooked.
Over 80% of the reading texts in the exam comprise of only 3 text types. In addition, sources such as
subscription magazines, newspapers and journals may exacerbate disadvantages faced by students due to
factors such as their socio-economic status, or the profession of their family members. As such, several
suggestions are provided on how to improve the problems that could be caused by this imbalance.
It is acknowledged that the scope of this paper accounts only for one of four parts of the HKDSE
English Language exam. A further analysis may yet reveal that the weaknesses explored here are evened
out by considerations that go into the setting of the setting of the other papers. However, given the
immense effect that the examination has over the lives of its stakeholders and students in particular
the authorities should ensure that every effort to instill positive backwash of teaching and learning,
validity, and social fairness, is considered and taken.
The Author
Man-Chit Chak holds a masters degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong and
an LTCL DipTESOL from Trinity College London. He teaches in Hong Kong, where he is the vice-
chairperson of the English Department at a local secondary school and a lecturer for the Vocational
Training Council. He is also a TESOL examiner for Trinity. His research interests are assessment, teacher
development, and second-language curriculum.
Phone: (852) 9512 0835
E-mail: stevenchakmc@gmail.com
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... In addition to providing proof of learning for the six years of secondary education, the HKDSE provides scores used for university entrance, leading to its high-stakes nature. The magnitude of this examination is further evident in how schools leverage top results as promotional tools, prominent publishers like Oxford University Press (2022) analyse test papers annually for pedagogical insights, and the extensive shadow education industry, boasting over 1000 tutorial centres, meticulously develops strategies based on exam patterns (Chak, 2020). Moreover, the media annually showcases top HKDSE performers, emphasizing the societal weight of this examination. ...
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... A number of essential features of close reading are crucial. For instance, teachers should pay attention to the selection of texts that should be short and complex (Chak, 2020). The complexity of the texts is an element of reading that is considered by three factors: quantitative measure, qualitative values, and the match between task demand and readers. ...
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