Profile

Name: Assoc Prof WU Siew Mei
Designation: Director
Telephone: 6516 3865
Fax: 6777 9152
Email: elcwusm@nus.edu.sg
Office: CELC #02-10A (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
  • AssocDip TESOL, Sheffield City Polytechnic & Trinity College London, UK

Awards

  • NUS Teaching Excellence Award 2007-2008
  • CELC Commendation for Teaching Excellence 2007-2008

Research interests

  • Evaluation in text,
  • English for academic purposes,
  • Large scale English language tests

Modules/Courses Taught

  • EG1413: Critical Thinking & Writing
  • ES5002: Thesis Writing
  • SP1202: Communicating with the Academy
  • SP1203: Foundation in Effective Communication
  • NK1001: English for Academic Purposes, Business

Publications


Book Chapters

  • 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.

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).

Articles In Internationally Refereed Journals

  • Wu, S. M. (2010). Investigating Raters' Use of Analytic Descriptors in Assessing Writing. Reflections in English Language Teaching, 9(2), pp. 69 - 104.
  • 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). The use of engagement resources in high and low-rated undergraduate geography essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, (6), 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.
  • 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 Local 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.
  • Wu, S. M. (2010). Communication Training Beyond the English Language Class. CDTL Brief, 13(2). Retrieved from http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/brief/v13n2/sec1a.htm

BOOK REVIEW

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

Materials Development

  • Wu Siew Mei and Happy Goh (2008)
    National Trade Union Congress Learning Hub
    Workplace English (Level 2)
    Trainer manual and Trainees' materials

Research Projects

1. Co - Investigator. Project title: Enhancing test validity: Using the many-facets Rasch Model for analyzing rater-reliability and rater errors. Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning Teaching Enhancement Grant, National University of Singapore (August 2010 to August 2011)

2. Co - Project Director. Temasek funded project entitled ‘Academic Writing Teaching Methodologies for English Language Teacher Trainers of Teacher Training Colleges in Laos’.

3. Co - Project Director. Temasek funded project entitled ‘English Language Communication Development of Curriculum, Methodologies and Materials for English Language Lecturers and Teacher-trainers of Ministry of Education, Thailand’. April 2011.

4. Project title: 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. This is a funded collaborative project between the School of Computing and the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. 2009.

Principal Investigators: Ng Hwee Tou (School of Computing), Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Communication), NUS.

5. Project title: Investigating written errors in undergraduate writing.

This project was funded by the Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning, National University of Singapore. (2007). This one-year project involves the creation of a corpus of undergraduate and post graduate writing in the university, with the main aim of identifying and categorizing patterns of written errors made in the context of a meaning-focused writing task. A secondary follow-up aim of the project was to survey perceptions of tertiary teachers of English and other courses of the grammaticality and coherence of persistent sentence- and paragraph-level errors. The predominant types of error found in students’ writing were (1) word-based errors involving collocation, preposition and idiomatic expression, (2) errors in punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and typos, and (3) errors in the use of articles and determiners. In the survey, the respondents found grammar and coherence problems which impede meaning much more unacceptable than those which do not. The initial findings of the project can provide empirically justifiable rationale for designing materials using particular types of error. Materials design in this sense is able to address the specific and relevant language needs of the students.  Additionally, the project experience also provides the platform for a more comprehensive study into written errors involving a 1 million word corpus, with the expressed interest in developing a automated writing and annotation assessment tool.

Principal Investigator: Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Communication)

Co-investigators: Ruanni Tupas and Zhu Shenfa

 

6. Project title: 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. (2006 - 2007).

Principal Investigators: Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Communication), Chew Moh Leen (Centre for English Language Communication), Jessie Teng (Centre for English Language Communication)

 

7. Project title: Wu, S. M. (2006). Investigating raters’ use of analytic descriptors in assessing writing. The project was funded by the RELC Research Fellowship Grant.

 

8. Project title: 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. (2005 - 2006).

Principal Investigators: Wu Siew Mei, Chew Moh Leen, Jessie Teng (Centre for English Language Communication)

 

9. Project title: The Development of Academic Writing in English Language Studies. This project was funded by the NUS Research Grant. (1998 - 2000)

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

Co-investigator: Dr Wu Siew Mei (Centre for English Language Communication)

 

10. Distribution of NUS Corpus of Learner English (NUCLE) as a non-commercial research/trial software

Inventors: A/Prof. Hwee Tou Ng, A/Prof. Siew Mei Wu and Daniel Dahlmeier

Description:

The NUS Corpus of Learner English (NUCLE) was collected in a collaboration project between the National University of Singapore (NUS) Natural Language Processing (NLP) Group led by Prof. Hwee Tou Ng and the NUS Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) led by Prof. Siew Mei Wu. The work was carried out as part of the PhD thesis research of Daniel Dahlmeier at the NUS NLP Group.

The corpus consists of about 1,400 essays written by university students at the National University of Singapore on a wide range of topics, such as environmental pollution, healthcare, etc. It contains over one million words which are completely annotated with error tags and corrections. All annotations have been performed by professional English instructors at the NUS CELC.

Seminars & Conferences

  • Wu, S. M. (2011). Optimising accurate measurement in large scale test using the Multi-faceted Rasch analysis. Invited paper presented at the Language and Communication Centre, Nanyang Technological University. 1- 3 Dec 2011.
  • Wu, S. M. (2011). Enhancing able communicators: Perspectives from CELC. Invited paper presented at the Faculty of Science Annual Teaching Day 19th April 2011, National University of Singapore.
  • Tan, H. L. and Wu, S. M. (2011). Anchoring Raters in a Large-Scale Assessment using the Many Facets Rasch Model. Paper presented at Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS). 13 - 15th July, The National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
  • Wu, S. M. and Lee, K. C. (2011). NUS student community: Able communicators. Paper presented at English Language Leaders' Symposium, 11 - 12 March 2011. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
  • Conducted an invited workshop entitled 'Academic Writing' in conjunction with the launch of the Temasek Project entitled 'Academic Writing Teaching Methodologies for English Language Teacher Trainers of Teacher Training Colleges in Laos'. 9th January 2011, Laos PDR.
  • Member of invited panel to conduct a workshop on Academic Publication and Presentation in conjunction with the training of Temasek project participants. The project is entitled 'Capability-Building of English Language Curriculum Developers for Professional Communication for University Faculty in ASEAN universities'. 6-8 December 2010, National University of Singapore.
  • 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)

Unpublished Materials


Unpublished PhD Dissertation

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

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.