University assessment: a genre-based needs analysis of university examination and assignment prompts

Abstract

This study is an attempt to identify the needs of EAP students in understanding examination and assignment prompts from the perspective of potential difficulties implied in the structure of the prompts. Two research questions were proposed: firstly, what conceptual and communicative dimensions can be identified in examination and assignment prompts? Secondly, how do these dimensions differ between social science/humanities (SSH) and science and technology (ST) discipline areas and between first year undergraduate and graduate courses? To answer the research questions, a descriptive study was conducted to analyze 1061 examination prompts and 225 assignment prompts from 118 different courses. The data were taken from 18 departments at Victoria University of Wellington. The data were analyzed in three ways: an analysis of propositional complexity of the prompts, a functional analysis of the rhetorical components of the prompts, and a classification of the prompts based on the type of tasks they instruct. In terms of propositional complexity, the prompts were divided into two major forms essay and non-essay, and each of these was categorized into simple, compound, and complex forms resulting in six macro-structure types. In terms of rhetorical structure the prompts were characterised as having two obligatory components: the comment and the topic, and one or all of these optional components: the focus, the perspective and the background information. At the task level the prompts were classified into seven categories of prompts: 1)draw and list, 2)calculate, 3)verify, 4) define and illustrate, 5)describe and explain, 6)discuss and analyze, and 7) evaluate and argue categories. An interrater reliability check was conducted at the task type to find out how far the proposed categorization match the EAP teachers' interpretation of the prompts. The three levels of analysis showed that there are no major differences between the prompts in social science/humanities and science and technology discipline areas. Predictably there were more non-essay questions in ST particularly in first year subjects. Overall, however, students in ST examinations face three prompts out of four requiring an essay answer. The implications of each of the analyses are discussed for EAP course design and for interpreting questions.