Ling He
Department of English
Ling He
Ling He
Dr. Ling He is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), where she teaches academic writing to domestic and global undergraduate students enrolled in the First-Year Writing Program (FYWP). She specializes in English writing assessment with a focus on the validity of using standardized English tests to assess the English writing competence of language minority students in universities. Her current research interest is in classroom language assessment and the role such assessment plays in enhancing students’ success in learning and refining instructors’ practices of teaching academic writing. Dr. He has been actively conducting qualitative as well as quantitative studies on assessing university students’ academic writing competence; she has published research articles in top-tier peer-reviewed journals such as Language Testing and Assessing Writing and shared her practices of classroom assessment in FYWP at UIC through her publication in TESOL Connections. Dr. He received the Lecturer Distinguished Teaching Award for the First-Year Writing Program at UIC in both the 2018–2019 and 2024–2025 academic years in recognition of her “innovation in course design, care in lesson planning, excellence in student learning.”
Dr. Ling He received her Ph.D. degree in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where she had also earned a Master of Arts degree in Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology. In addition, she received a Master of Education degree in English as a Second Language and Computer Education at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Before joining UIC, Dr. He had years of experience teaching English at universities in the US, Canada, and China.
He is a 2024-25 Action Research Scholar.
Ling He
Ling He
Achieving Educational Equity and Promoting Inclusive Pedagogy: Exploring the Impact of Student-Centered Assessment on Engagement and Academic Writing Development
1
Abstract
While college English writing assessment has often been examined through either cognitive or social learning perspectives, it is relatively unexplored in writing studies how classroom practices, as socially situated contexts, shape learners’ cognitive engagement with writing tasks to support their academic writing development, particularly among culturally and linguistically diverse first-year university students. Firmly rooted in sociocultural theories, this study foregrounds the dynamic interplay between social, cultural, and cognitive processes in shaping academic writing competence within classroom-based formative assessment.
2
This study, situated in a first-year writing course, employed a mixed-methods design, integrating qualitative and quantitative data to investigate the impact of socially interactive assessment practices on the development of academic writing competence for genre-specific purposes and targeted audiences. Findings indicate that formative assessment designed as a student-centered and inclusive practice effectively supported students in accomplishing target writing tasks by fostering interactions and collaboration with peers, the instructor, and through self-reflection. These results underscore the pedagogical value of embedding formative assessment within collaborative classroom environments and offer practical insights for improving first-year writing instruction and supporting diverse student populations in developing their academic writing competence for academic success.
Project Information
Project Background and Rationale
Background
This study was conducted in a credited 100-level first-year writing course required for all incoming freshmen at UIC, designed to support academic writing development. In addition to summative feedback, I integrate formative assessment into the curriculum to support learning, using multiple forms of formative feedback throughout the writing process. These classroom practices have been well received for providing specific and explicit feedback throughout the writing process, helping to improve the quality of students’ written work. To support my students’ academic success, I continuously evaluate student needs and adjust my teaching plans, accordingly, acquire new skills to improve my teaching effectiveness, and create supportive learning opportunities in my courses. However, I have come to realize that there exists a gap in that the formative assessment in my previous teaching was mainly teacher-dominated, linear, and offered less opportunity for knowledge retrieval; I could have provided more chances in class for students to interact with their peers, the course content, and the instructor. The gap was further complicated by the fact that many students taking my courses were unable to commit adequate time to practice after class as they had part-time jobs or juggled multiple courses. It is, therefore, the realization of this gap that intrigued me to think about how I may provide more learning opportunities through effective teaching practices during class time for optimal learning outcomes and motivate me to conduct this action research.
Rationale
The rationale for this action research is bifold. First, this study echoes Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory (1978), which states that learning is mostly a social process and innately collaborative, whereby cognitive development occurs as a result of social interactions. Second, this research aims to contribute to existing studies on writing and classroom assessment, viewed through a sociocultural lens that focuses on learners’ cognitive development in academic writing. Research has so far directed much attention to writing assessment for learning and investigated its role in writing from cognition and social culture perspectives respectively. Little research has explored how social culture and classroom practices jointly promote writers’ cognitive and behavioral engagement in developing academic writing skills.
Research calls for attention to the fact that “linguistic and social factors are interrelated in language change” and should be studied “in their mutual interaction” (Roberge, 2006, p. 2308). Such investigation is particularly important for writing classes with diverse student populations, like the first-year writing courses at UIC. While universities have equally opened their doors to these newcomers, it is instructors’ responsibility to support these learners not only in linguistic and subject domains but also through our effective classroom practices. Thus, an investigation of the role of classroom context and effective teaching approaches in student engagement for their academic success during the first year is rightfully needed. My research is geared toward this direction and focuses attention on the role of social interactions in promoting the student’s cognitive and behavioral change and the student’s engagement to develop writing competence through effective scaffoldings in classrooms.
1
How does formative assessment within a socially interactive classroom context influence students’ engagement and development in academic writing?