(Mis)alignment of syntactic errors in HKDSE scripts and local secondary school teachers’ perceptions

Abstract

Written syntactic errors can have a significant impact on students’ attainments in high-stakes assessments such as the HKDSE, but little literature has demonstrated whether teachers’ perceptions align with candidates’ syntactic errors in the public examination and how misalignments can affect pedagogy in Hong Kong. This study investigates the nature of syntactic errors made in HKDSE and teachers' perceptions of them. Based on Chan’s taxonomy (2010) of written syntactic errors of Hong Kong students and the methodology of error analysis (Corder, 1974), the author collected 240 HKDSE writing scripts of five proficiency levels provided by the Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority to construct a corpus totalling 100,884 words and found 8925 syntactic errors of 25 categories. Findings reveal that grammatical accuracy is crucial to attaining the university entrance requirement of Level 3. Concord (agreement related) and verb form selection errors are found to be the top two errors across five proficiency levels, accounting for above 35% of all syntactic errors tagged. Subsequently, separate interviews were conducted with four local secondary English teachers to discuss the most common errors found and their perceptions. Incorporating the two sources of data and examiners’ comments on students’ syntactic errors in HKDSE examination reports, the study reveals three major misalignments: the unexpectedly high pervasiveness of concord problems in high-level scripts, the underestimated frequency and gravity of conjunction errors, and the overgeneralised suitability of using more complex sentences. This study emphasizes the need for current teachers, even experienced ones, to realign their perceptions with the actual syntactic errors found in the HKDSE and for the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council to include in the senior secondary English Curriculum the grammar items of subject-verb agreement (related to concord) and conjunction, which currently are only stipulated in the primary curriculum by the council, to facilitate a more effective learning experience for HKDSE students.