Academic Staff Profile

 

 

 

 

 Name

 

Dr WU Siew Mei

 Designation

Director

 Telephone

65163865

 Fax

67779152

 Email

elchead@nus.edu.sg

 Office

10 Architecture Drive Singapore 117511

 

Academic Qualifications

           PhD National University of Singapore, Singapore

          MA (Applied Linguistics) Monash University, Australia

          BA (Hons) National University of Singapore, Singapore

          DipEd National University of Singapore, Singapore

          Assoc Dip TESOL, Sheffield City Polytechnic & Trinity College London, UK

 

Modules/Courses Taught

  

          EG1413: Critical Thinking & Writing

          ES5002: Thesis Writing

          SP1202: Communicating with the Academy

          SP1203: Foundation in Effective Communication

 

Research Interests

 

           Evaluation in text, English for academic purpose, Large scale English language tests

 
AWARDS

NUS Teaching Excellence Award (2009)

CELC Teaching Excellence Award (2008)

 
 

Publications

 
  Articles in internationally refereed journals

Wu S. M. (2008). Investigating the effectiveness of arguments in undergraduate essays from an evaluation perspective. Prospect: Journal of Australian TESOL, 23 (5), pp. 59 - 75.

 

 

Wu, S.M. (2007).  Investigating the effectiveness of arguments in undergraduate Geography essays from an evaluation perspective. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6(3). Pp. 254-271.

 

 

Wu, S.M. (2006). The operation of value in undergraduate English Language essays. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 5(1), 123-140.

 

 

Wu, S. M. (2006). Creating a contrastive rhetorical stance: Investigating the strategy of problematisation in students’ argumentation. Regional English Language Centre Journal 37 (3), 329- 353.

 

  Wu, S.M. & Allison, D.M. (2005). Evaluative expressions in analytical arguments: Aspects of appraisal in assigned English language essays. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(1), 105-127.
   
  Wu, S.M. (2003). Exploring Appraisal in Claims of Student Writers in Argumentative Essays. Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 18(3), 71-92.

Wu, S.M. (2003). Exploring the Writer's Opinion in Two Undergraduates' Written Reports. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 2,  24-41.
   

 

 Allison, D.M. & Wu, S.M. (2001). Academic Writing : Whose Expectations ? RELC Journal, 32(1), 52-72.

Wu, S.M.,  Toh, L.S.J.E., Norhayati Bte Mohd Ismail, Meyer, L., Jacobs, J.M. & Crookall, D. (2001). An Exploratory Study of Lecturers' Views of Out-of-Class Academic Collaboration Among Students. k@ta, 3(2), Article #6.

 

 

Wu, S.M., Toh, L.S.J.E., Crookall, D., Lopez-Nerney, S., Teng S.M.J., Norhayati Bte Mohd Ismail & Meyer, L. (2000). The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 9(1), 64-82.

 

 

Allison, D.M., Varghese, S.A. & Wu, S.M. (1999). Local Coherence and its Limits: A Second Look at Second Sentences. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(1), 77-97.

 

 

Wu, S.M. (1996). Content-Based ESL at High School Level: A Case Study. Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 11(1), 18-31.

 

 

Wu, S.M. (1995). Evaluating Narrative Essays: A Discourse Analysis Perspective. RELC Journal, 26(1), 1-26.

 

 

Wu, S.M. (1998). Using Newsgroup Materials for the Language Class. Guidelines: A Periodical for Classroom Language Teachers, 20 (1), 50-59.
  ARTICLES IN LOCALLY REFEREED JOURNALS

Wu, S. M. & Chan, P. (2008). Using the Toulmin approach in teaching argumentative writing. In S. M. Wu & R. T. Tupas (Editors), The English Language Teaching and Learning Landscape. Selected papers from the Second CELC Symposium for English Language Teachers. Pp 69 – 79. Centre for English Language Communication, NUS, Singapore.

Wu S. M. (2008). An Exploratory investigation into the use of scaling expressions in students' essays. Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society Language and Communication Review, 7 (1), pp1 - 11.

 Wu, S.M. (2006). A Bibliography for Academic Writing Research. SAAL Quarterly, No. 73, 10-19.

 
   
 

CHAPTER IN EDITED BOOKS

Wu S. M. (2007). ‘Value’ in undergraduates’ argumentative texts. In Teo, P. and Ho, C. (Eds) Discourse in the modern world. PP 53-81. McGraw Hill, Singapore.

Allison, D.M. & Wu, S.M. (2002). Investigating Writing Development in an Academic English Language Curriculum. In Flowerdew, J. (Ed.), Academic Discourse, London & New York: Longman, pp. 255-267.
   
   

BOOK REVIEW

Wu, S.M. (2006). Teaching the General Paper. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 16, 153-156.
   
 

 

Edited Books

2008. The English language teaching and learning landscape: Continuity, innovation and diversity. (Selected papers from the Second CELC Symposium for English language teachers). Wu Siew Mei and Ruanni Tupas (Chief Editors), Chew Moh Leen, Maria Luisa C. Sadorra and Chitra Varaprasad. Singapore: CELC, NUS.

 

Cholewla, S. , Wu, S.M.  & Learmonth, P. (1997). Australian Snapshots. Melbourne: Adult Migrant Education Service, (104 pp).

 

Unpublished PhD dissertation

Wu Siew Mei (2005). Investigating evaluative language in undergraduate argumentative texts. National University of Singapore.

 

           

 Research projects

(2009). The development of Writing, annotation and marking platform (WAMP).

 

The project seeks to develop an automated marking tool for the assessment of essays. The focus is on the automated correction of grammatical errors. A funded collaborative project between the School of Computing and the Centre for English Language Communication.

 

Principal Investigators:

Ng Hwee Tou (School of Computing)

Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Communication)

 

Co-investigator

Susan Tan Hui Leng (Centre for English Language Communication)

 

_________________________________

(2007). Teaching Enhancement Grant Project : Investigating  written errors in undergraduate writing.

 

Principal investigator: Wu Siew Mei

Co-investigators: Ruanni Tupas and Zhu Shenfa.

 

This project was funded by the Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning, National University of Singapore.

_________________________________

(2006 − 2007). An analysis of the Qualifying English Test scores (2005 and 2006).

 

This project involved the study of at least 4000 QET scripts and students’ scores in sections A, B and C of the placement test. The project was funded by the Centre for English Language Communication.

  Principal Investigators:

  Wu Siew Mei

  Chew Moh Leen

  Jessie Teng

_________________________________

Wu, S. M. (2006). Investigating raters’ use of analytic descriptors in assessing writing.

 

The project was funded by the RELC Research Fellowship Grant.

_____________________________________

(2005 − 2006): The effectiveness of English for Academic Purposes courses.

 

This project involved the investigation into the pre and post course proficiency bands of at least 1000 of CELC’s EAP undergraduates. The project was funded by the Centre for English Language Communication.

 

            Principal Investigators:

            Wu Siew Mei

            Chew Moh Leen

            Jessie Teng

_____________________________________

(1998 − 2000): The Development of Academic Writing in English Language Studies.

 

Principal Investigators:

A/P Desmond Allison and Dr Susheela Varghese (Department of English Language and Literature)

 

Collaborator: Dr Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Ccommunication)

 

This project was funded by the NUS Research Grant.

      

 

 

 

 

 Unpublished Papers

 Wu S. M., Chew, M. L. & Teng, T. M. (2008). An investigation into the Qualifying English Test scores (2005  − 2006). Submitted to CELC, NUS.

 Wu S. M., Tupas, R. & Zhu, S. F. (2008). Investigating written errors in undergraduate writing. Submitted to the Centre for Teaching and Learning, NUS.

 Wu S. M., Chew, M. L. & Teng, T. M. (2007). The effectiveness of EAP courses on students’ language proficiency. Submitted to CELC, NUS.

 

 

Wu, S. M. (2006). Investigating raters’ use of analytic descriptors in assessing writing. Submitted to the Specialist Department, Regional English Language Centre.

 

 

 

 

Conference Papers

Wu, S. M. & Chan, P. Teaching argumentative writing: Possibilities and problems. CELC Symposium (29 May – 1Jun 2007, Hilton Hotel, Singapore)

 

Wu, S. M., Lee, K. C. and Tan, S. A large scale writing course for tertiary level Science students. RELC  Seminar (23 – 25 April, 2006, RELC Singapore).

 

Wu, S. M. and Lee, G. L. Features of Academic Writing for Evaluation.

CELC Symposium (2 - 4 Jun 2004, Hilton Hotel, Singapore)

 

Wu, S. M. Marking academic essays: Whose expectations?

RELC Conference (2 - 5 Nov 2003, RELC)

 

Wu, S. M. and Allison, D. M. Interaction in students' argumentative claims. AILA Conference (16 – 19 Dec 2002, Suntec City Convention Hall, Singapore)

 

Allsion, D., Varghese, S. and  Wu, S. M. Task, feedback and writing development. Conference on Language and Knowledge (7 - 9 Sep 1998, Orchard Parade Hotel, Singapore)

  

Wu, S. M. and Meyer, J. E. Communicating with the audience through the use of

metadiscourse. Educational Research Association Conference (24 - 26 Nov 1997)

 

Wu, S. M.  The internet and the writing class. Educational Research Association – Australian Association for Research in Education (ERA-AARE) Joint Conference (25 - 29 Nov 1996, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore)

 

 

 

 

 

Materials Development

 

Wu Siew Mei and Happy Goh (2008)

National Trade Union Congress Learning Hub

Workplace English (Level 2)

Trainer manual and Trainees' materials