Profile

Name: Dara Leah Richard
Designation: Lecturer
Telephone: 6516 1043
Email: elcdlr@nus.edu.sg
Office: CELC #02-06 (10 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117511)

Academic Qualifications

  • MA TESOL, University of Washington, USA
  • BA English, University of Washington, USA

Modules/Courses Taught

  • SP1203 Foundation in Effective Communication (course coordinator)
  • ES2002 Business Communication
  • EG1471 English for Academic Purposes (Eng)
  • Pre-matriculation course for Senior Middle 2 PRC Students (Batch 12 & 14) (materials coordinator)

Research Interests

  • Learner motivation
  • Written communication
  • Material development

Publications

  • SCALES, J., WENNERSTROM, A., RICHARD, D. and WU, S. H. (2006), Language Learners' Perceptions of Accent. TESOL Quarterly, 40: 715–738. doi: 10.2307/40264305

Research Projects

Building written fluency through free writing

Academic writing programs focus primarily on linguistic accuracy, organization and supporting the thesis in that order. This reinforces the tendency of non-native English users to over-emphasize improving their grammar and vocabulary. One result is that students in academic writing programs expend much effort but produce very little writing. Students also view writing negatively and lack confidence in their writing ability. Regular practice of free writing can improve their fluency, academic self-confidence and also generate ideas that they can further develop in their essays. Free writing means writing continuously for a short period of time. It usually consists of the author’s personal response to a set topic and emphasizes producing content over organization and linguistic accuracy. For this proposal, fluency is defined as writing a generally comprehensible moderate quantity text in a short period of time without laborious effort.

The students will be asked to write continuously for 15 minutes in class once a week over ten weeks in response to an academic text. Each week the students will have to write one single-spaced handwritten page. If they cannot fill it in the 15 minutes, they will have to complete the rest as homework. At the end of the program, the students submit to the tutor their ten responses and peer comments with a short reflective piece comparing their fluency and attitude toward writing at the beginning and end of the program. The responses and reflection will be used to assess whether free writing has improved the students’ fluency and self-confidence in writing.

Seminars & Conferences


  • RICHARD, D. (2006, June). Using real world tasks to prepare students for UPSR paper 2. Paper presented at the 15th Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA 2006), Merdeka Palace Hotel, Kuching, Malaysia