Professor YU Guoxingfrom Bristol University was invited to deliver a lecture entitled “Towards a Better Understanding of Graph-based Writing Tasks: the Constructs of Assessment and the Methods of Data Elicitation” on November 24, 2014. The lecture was chaired by Professor Xu Hai and attended by faculties and graduate students in the Center.

In the lecture, Professor Yu presented three funded studies that focused on the cognitive processes of completing graph-based writings. In the first study, a working model of the cognitive processes of completing graph-based writings was proposed after analyzing the transcriptions of test-takers’ think aloud. The model divided the cognitive processes into three stages: comprehending non-graphically presented task instruction, graph comprehension and re-producing graph comprehension in written form. The second study compared the graph-based writing tasks in IELTS and GEPT in Taiwan. The results showed that the impacts of using different graph prompts on test score were minimal but the use of different graph prompts were substantially related to test-takers’ cognitive processes, at the stage of comprehending graphs and re-producing the comprehension. The third study used eye-tracking technology to investigate test-takers’ cognitive processes while finishing the graph-based writing task. The results indicated that participants spent more time in composing the writing than in comprehending the instructions and graphs.

Professor Yu’s lecture helped theaudiencebetter understand the graph-based writing processes and the methods in conducting such research.Theattendantsshowed great interest in Professor Yu’s studies and asked questions about the constructs underlying the graph-based writing and the details of the research methods. Professor Yu answered the questions in detail and shared his research experiences with interested teachers and students.