Employing Bloom’s Taxonomy to Assess Students’ Ability in Using Chinese Idioms in Essay Writing

Students often have difficulty in using Chinese idioms in the right contexts and this has a negative effect on their performance in activities such as Chinese essay writing. Using scaffolded instruction, the content, materials, tasks and teacher support for using Chinese idioms were systematically sequenced to build up the students’ competencies in using Chinese idioms in essay writing. Based on a sample of six Year 2 classes, the students’ scores and results from six worksheets given in order of Bloom’s taxonomy (beginning with the most basic skill) were analyzed. The findings from the study are discussed in terms of the various competencies involved in using idioms in Chinese essays, categorized in order of cognitive complexity. There are also pitfalls in this approach of assessing students’ ability. Despite these challenges, they present opportunities for profiling the students based on specific competencies related to Chinese idioms and Chinese essay writing. This information helps the teacher accurately pinpoint in each student the areas of weaknesses, thus enhancing the effects of the subsequent remedial actions.