Chapter 5. The contribution of ethnographically-oriented approaches to the study of L2 writing and text production processes

Abstract

This chapter synthesizes trends in the study of writing and text production processes, and presents an analysis of the contribution that ethnographically-oriented research can make to professional discussions in this domain. It is suggested that the affordances of ethnographic approaches should be linked to the emergence of two “methodological rich points” (Hornberger, 2006) that came about as a consequence of disciplinary interests in the socially-situated as well as the time-distributed nature both of literacy practices and of the invisible text production processes behind such practices. I illustrate this potential contribution of ethnographic approaches with representative studies in which the research lens was extended to zoom into writing across languages, modes, time, and environments. The chapter closes with some global methodological considerations for future work into the invisible dimension of text production.