Abstract
Task representation is an essential step for second/foreign language writers when they compose either classroom writing assignments or write in a test situation. This study used a combination of eye-tracking and stimulated recall techniques to investigate the task representation processes of 16 non-native English writers who completed an integrated reading-to-write task. Results showed that the participants engaged in task representation processes throughout task completion. Evidence from their eye movements and stimulated verbal recalls proved that this type of cognitive process is not a single, simple act, but an extended, repetitive interpretive process that may occur at different phases of writing. The inclusion of reading materials in a writing task may complicate writers’ task representation process by introducing more reading into the process of writing, and thus calls for more interaction between these two skills.
Highlights
The past two decades have witnessed a growing interest among second/foreign language teachers and testers in integrated writing tasks
The time-related metrics are all presented in seconds. It can be seen in the table that participants approached the reading-to-write task quite differently in terms of the time when they looked at each areas of interest (AOIs) for the first time, a major pattern that seems to emerge from these measures is that participants started responding to the task by having a quick and short browse of all the seven parts of the task, and went back to read the task instructions and the source materials one after another in a slow and careful manner
This study investigated foreign language writers’ task representation processes while completing an integrated writing task
Summary
The past two decades have witnessed a growing interest among second/foreign language teachers and testers in integrated writing tasks. The reformed Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which previously contained only a single independent writing-only task, added an integrated writing task that requires test-takers to listen to and read texts followed by a written summarisation based on this content
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