Transacting L2 Writer Identity in Remote Learning During COVID-19: An Activity Theory Approach

Abstract

The recent phenomenon of school closures caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic has dramatically transformed the way we teach and learn in educational institutions globally. Such changes will have profound effects on a number of issues related to teaching L2 writing. Accordingly, focusing on this abrupt shift from in-school instruction to remote learning, we examined how the L2 students constructed and transformed their remote academic discourse communities, wherein their writer identity was initially projected and later reprojected through L2 written practices. Drawing from data collected in a case study of writing activities of two Korean EFL college students, we investigated how these students positioned themselves as writers within the activity system of the remote learning environment, making particular rhetorical choices in academic writing. To achieve this objective, we adopted a genetic method which tracks development of a student’s identity, employing Vygotskian sociocultural theory, together with activity theory, and Swales’ (1990) genre analysis model. Our study showed that the two students exploited the shift to remote learning as the affordances for a new, academic writer identity construction. Thus, we suggest a new line of inquiry to add understanding of identity constructions, especially during this sudden change in educational contexts.