Stories behind the scenes: L2 students’ cognitive processes of multimodal composing and traditional writing

Abstract

In recent years, multimodal composing has attracted much attention in the field of second language (L2) writing. Previous research focused heavily on the pedagogical effects of teaching multimodal writing to L2 students. Less investigated is students’ cognitive engagement in the complicated processes of composing multimodal texts. To bridge the research gap, this qualitative study examines the composing processes of two groups of L2 writers over five weeks, as one group completed a multimodal video project and the other one completed a traditional essay project. Data consist of students’ screen recordings with the think-aloud protocol, written and multimodal products, and post-project interviews. This study shows that the two groups shared common behavioral patterns of consulting outside sources and initiating revisions, which might be attributed to similar writing schemas. Students who were tasked to create a video showed more autonomous writing and inconsistent text-borrowing behaviors. Pedagogical implications and research suggestions are discussed in light of the findings.