Transfer and transformation in multilingual student writing

Abstract

While transfer research in English-for-academic-purposes (EAP), first-year-composition (FYC) and second language (L2) writing contexts has theorized how novice multilingual writers might adapt prior knowledge across languages, we still have little empirical evidence to suggest how L2 writers make decisions concerning how and what to transfer in such writing courses. Grounded in the theory of adaptive transfer, this article examines how six multilingual students transform both genre tasks and their own processes of writing by drawing from a range of discursive and generic resources. We also propose a dynamic methodological approach for empirically examining adaptive transfer that includes both linguistic and rhetorical emphases. Findings of the study reveal that instances of transfer were influenced by the particular audiences to whom students chose to target their essays, as well as students' perceptions of a genre task's value in preparing them for writing in aspirational disciplines.