Raising learner awareness of L2 writing spaces: supporting researchers, teachers, and learners through system mapping

Abstract

This work examines how system mapping, an established exploratory and analytic technique grounded in complex dynamic systems theory, can operate as a heuristic to increase learners’ language awareness (LA) and develop their L2 writing proficiency. Accordingly, this study addresses repeated calls in the instructed SLA literature for effective research methods that directly serve learners at the point of enquiry. That is, although related research often foregrounds learners and pedagogy rather than theoretical abstraction, questions remain about how participants benefit at the time data are collected. To explore this concern, this work engaged system mapping through a LA pedagogy and followed two intact university classes (one using system mapping, and one not: N = 30) over one semester. Comparative quantitative and qualitative analyses of learners’ narrative reflections and academic essay writing highlighted that system mapping facilitates the raising of ­learners’ LA in service of developing their writing. This work demonstrates how system mapping capitalizes on learning theories that support image-schematic interventions and underscores how system mapping engages with and advances LA pedagogy in service of researchers, instructors, and students alike.