L2 Writers Research Articles

Critical language awareness in L2 writing: Starting por la autorreflexión, 自我反省

Adopting a critical collaborative autoethnographic narrative lens, we, two transnational multilingual scholars, examine our own journeys as L2 writers from learning English to learning how to teach and publish as academics that disseminate most of our scholarship in English. We critically reflect upon our respective educational journeys and professional experiences in and with academic English writing in relation to our own critical language awareness (CLA). Our perspective is that in order for us to critically look backward, outward, and forward in L2 writing, we must start inward, desde la autorreflexión, 自我反省 (zì wǒ fǎn xǐng). By engaging in this introspective exercise, and later engaging in CLA practices ourselves, we seek to initiate a movement in which we actively blur the fronteras 边界 (biān jiè) in our linguistic and scholarly practice and advocate for our languaging processes to be normalized in our publishing. In doing so, we can legitimize our translingual pedagogies. We conclude with some discussion points and implications for the fields of composition, literacy studies, and second language writing.

L2 Writing as a Tool for Improving L2 Speaking Accuracy through Text-Reconstruction Tasks in a Communicative Language Classroom

L2 Writing as a Tool for Improving L2 Speaking Accuracy through Text-Reconstruction Tasks in a Communicative Language Classroom

The Effect of Different Types of Online Feedback on the Revision of Korean EFL Students in Their L2 Writing.

The Effect of Different Types of Online Feedback on the Revision of Korean EFL Students in Their L2 Writing.

The Influence of L1(Chinese) on Writing in L2(English): A Case Study

This paper aims to explore the influences of L1 in the aspect of writing in L2, and it serves as a qualitative case study to disclose how Chinese as L1 influences writing in English (L2) in the context of IELTS writing exercises as part of mock exams. The influences of concern include: First, the study objects habitual or frequent misuse and mistakes of the L2 resulting from L1s existing language system; these errors can be grammatical, lexical, syntactic, structural, word choice, tense, etc.; and second, how the study objects previous experience of writing similar texts in L1 is extending its influence in L2 writing. The data were collected from students who used to prepare for IELTS academic tests to achieve the ends mentioned above. Writing tasks prepared for IELTS mock exam were collected for error collection and in-depth word-by-word analysis. The data for the study were collected after the IELTS exam was taken; these essays were part of the preparation for the IELTS exam. Therefore, the analysis can be used as a good indicator of how students perform and write formally in an academic context, not to mention the pressure experienced during the exam. The data analysis shows that there is a wide range of mistakes or misuses in writing in L2, all of which show a link to the interference or transfer of L1 to writing in L2 in aspects of grammar, semantics, and syntax. The interference results in ungrammatical or broken English. The analysis also reveals that the differences between L1 and L2 language systems may have resulted in some common errors and the so-called Chinglish. On the one hand, the linguistic habits and thinking habits of L1 possibly interfere with writing in L2. On the other hand, students unfamiliarity with the English language, including grammatical rules, semantic structures, and correct usage of words and phrases, also contributed to reduced efficiency or miscommunication of writing in L2. Based on the above-mentioned findings, suggestions are made for students on methods to improve L2 acquisition and application.

Pedagogical Benefits and Practical Concerns of Writing Portfolio Assessment: Suggestions for Teaching L2 Writing

This study aims to investigate Vietnamese students’ perceptions of portfolio assessment and how it affects their writing performance. Furthermore, the study explores problems encountered during the assessment process, which could offer professional support for teachers, particularly novice teachers, when applying this formative assessment to teaching writing. Data was collected through students’ written papers, observations, and semi-structured interviews with a total of thirteen low- and intermediate-level undergraduate students. The findings demonstrate the aspects of the assessment usefulness, namely validity, authenticity, interactive-ness, and impact. Accordingly, the assessment provides students with a comprehensive understanding of academic writing that enhances their writing abilities. In particular, students recognize their common grammatical errors, pay more attention to organizing ideas logically, and develop writing habits throughout the writing process, which have not been carefully addressed in prior education. Nevertheless, there are a number of issues that need to be carefully considered, including idea development, plagiarism knowledge, self- and peer-assessment, and the order of writing steps. In order to improve the reliability and practicality of the assessment, solutions to those concerns are provided.

Implementing Digital Multimodal Composing in L2 Writing

L2 writing has been embedded in digital technology and broadened into digital multimodal composing. Recent research has emphasized the composing process and the effects of feedback, but few on L2 writers' engagement with feedback. Therefore, with the multi-draft approach, the research investigated two English majors' responses to peer and video feedback. First, from their first drafts and peer checklists, the author analyzed the salient problems of their multimodal texts. Then, the researcher explored how they respond to feedback form their drafts and interview responses. The findings suggest some problems including overuse of texts, visual disharmony, and “disconnection” from the audience. Besides, the study reveals a complex relationship among three engagement dimensions, manifested in interconnectedness and inconsistencies. Meanwhile, learner engagement with feedback is mediated by individual and contextual factors. The findings contribute insights into understanding L2 writers' engagement with feedback.

Instructional Scaffolding Strategies to Support the L2 Writing of EFL College Students in Kuwait

This classroom-based study investigated the most frequently employed instructional scaffolding strategies to support second language (L2) writing by three English as foreign language (EFL) college teachers in Kuwait. Thus, this study had two aims: (1) to investigate the most frequently-used scaffolding strategies for teaching writing that were employed by the participating EFL teachers, and (2) to survey the students’ perceptions of their teachers’ scaffolding strategies. Data collection methods included classroom observations, a survey, and six group interviews with the three teachers. Microsoft Excel software was used to analyze the numerical data from the survey. The observations and interviews produced the most frequently used strategies for instructional scaffolding in the EFL writing classroom. The grounded survey items were gleaned from the data of the observations and group interviews. The survey was distributed among the students to gain their perceptions of their teachers’ instructional scaffolding strategies. The findings revealed that the three EFL teachers frequently employed the two scaffolding strategies of rhetorical scaffolding and prior knowledge scaffolding. However, they utilized contextual scaffolding and language development scaffolding to a lesser extent in the writing classroom. Implications included the need to orient EFL teachers through training courses on scaffolding strategies and their optimal applications in the writing classroom.

Ideal L2 self, enjoyment, and strategy use in L2 integrated writing: A self-regulatory learning perspective

This study investigated the relationship between students' ideal L2 writing selves, enjoyment, writing strategy use, and their final L2 integrated writing (IW) performance under the self-regulated learning framework. Our data were collected from 239 Chinese university EFL learners through questionnaires and an English IW task. The results indicated that students who were motivated by the ideal L2 writing self and enjoyed L2 writing tended to use more writing strategies to facilitate their writing. Essentially, from ideal L2 writing self to L2 IW, a serial mediation effect existed of enjoyment-strategy use. But we did not find the direct effects of ideal L2 writing self and enjoyment on L2 IW performance. Pedagogically, the findings of this study implied that the teaching and learning of integrated writing in L2 should foster students’ ability to regulate their motivational, emotional, and cognitive resources, ultimately being self-regulated L2 writers.

Metadiscourse (MD) Studies in Second Language (L2) Writings: A Systematic Review of Literature

Metadiscourse is one linguistic component that helps authors make their writing coherent and reader-friendly (MD). All authors write for their readers, and by honing their MD skills, they may successfully engage with them. It's crucial for writers to tie their readers to the propositional content in the engaging part. Some authors are more adept at predicting the interests and concentration spans of their readers. There has been an increase in research on MD analyses of academic papers among writers who write in a second language (L2). This systematic review study provided empirical research on MD analysis studies among writers who write in English as a Second Language (ESL) to identify and summarize the studies that are related to MD analysis of L2 writings. The articles are from Scopus, Web of Science (WOS) and Google Scholar from January 2018 until December 2022. It was found that 26 journal articles are eligible for the analysis. The result showed that the present studies had been identified its aims to review previous pertinent research in terms of research design, study types, conceptual framework, taxonomies, corpus characteristics and elicitation measures, analytical methods and reporting practices to be beneficial in assisting L2 writers to write coherently and effectively.

Comparison of Lexical Complexity in L2 Speaking and Writing and Factors predicting English Speaking Proficiency

This study is to measure the three lexical complexity factors, i.e., lexical density, lexical diversity, and lexical sophistication using spoken and written data in a large-scale learner corpus, so that the lexical complexity can be observed in multidimensional terms. The study goes beyond most previous work on lexical complexity in SLA by examining the effects of all three measures of lexical complexity on predicting speaking proficiency of Korean EFL learners. Logistic regression analysis reveals that the verbal element of the lexical density factor was the most appropriate predictor of English proficiency (odds ratio: 2.259). In other words, the more frequently English learners use verbal elements, the higher their English-speaking ability is likely to improve 2.259 times. The results of this study will help to understand the correlation and difference compared to the results of other literatures in this field. Also, it will help educators to understand that the relationship between lexical complexity factors and proficiency is different in English speaking and writing, and to select more useful indicators when evaluating L2 learners. In addition, it is expected that it will serve as an evaluation method that can be used as an alternative in the field of pedagogy because it provides L2 discriminant function to evaluate learners. Keywords: Lexis; Lexical complexity; Learner corpus; Monologue; Logistic regression

Phrasal Syntactic Complexity Measures in Linguistics Research Articles Written by Iraqi and English L1 Writers

Complex phrasal structures are considered the distinctive features in the academic writing of high-proficiency writers. The use of more complex phrasal structures increases the quality of the written text. Based on the contrastive rhetorical theory of writing, writers are required to use linguistic components in a specific way that meets the genre of writing. This study aims to investigate and compare the phrasal syntactic complexity measures of the texts of linguistics research articles written by Iraqi and English L1 writers. It identifies if there is a significant difference between the writing of Iraqi and English L1 writers in terms of using phrasal syntactic structures. This study utilised the corpus-based method to analyse linguistics research articles written by Iraqi and English L1 writers and published from 2016 to 2020. Twelve phrasal syntactic complexity measures were analysed by using the automatic analyser TAASSC. This study revealed a significant difference between the writing of Iraqi and English L1 writers in terms of the analysed phrasal complexity measures. Utilising the complex phrasal structures in Iraqi research articles would significantly contribute to the quality and publication acceptance in reputable international journals. This study is therefore significant to guide Iraqi researchers to improvise their academic writing skills for publication purposes. Keywords: English for research publication purposes ERPP; English L1 writers; linguistics research articles; Iraqi writers; phrasal syntactic complexity

Towards decolonizing L2 writing pedagogy: translingual and transmodal resources

Abstract Scholarly conversations in writing pedagogy increasingly centre our roles in reproducing epistemic and structural biases, and consequently the need to decolonize our curriculum. These conversations can be especially informative for L2 writing instruction, given its focus on the academic socialization of ESL for non-Western students. This article argues for translingual and transmodal resources as a way towards decolonizing L2 writing pedagogy. Framing these approaches to writing instruction in terms of ‘border thinking’, I argue that they open the classroom space for L2 and L1 students during process-based writing instruction. They enable students to use the various semiotic and material resources to produce knowledge and learn authentically. I end by illustrating pedagogic activities I use in the classroom shaped by these paradigms in terms of their alignment with Indigenous and non-Western traditions, and how they position L2 writers in the academy as resourceful learners.

<p>Young EFL learners' pausing behavior: exploring pause thresholds in two proficiency levels</p>

The study of pausological behavior in L2 writing has been a matter of interest in recent years (see Lindgren & Sullivan, 2019), leading to a number of empirical studies which have explored pausing behavior from different angles. Among the many elements of pausological behavior, the pause threshold has aroused controversy in recent years (Alves et al., 2008) given its role in helping to discern lower-level and higher-level cognitive processes associated with L2 writing. While the research intent has focused recently on observing how pausological behavior varies according to the pause thresholds in adult L2 writers (Medimorec & Risko, 2017), this element of writing has not been examined in children L2 writers. For that purpose, this study analyzes pausological behavior and transcription fluency based on a picture-based story task by children L2 writers. Results indicate that pauses at word boundaries were more frequent than at sentence or paragraph boundaries. Likewise, the text boundary effect was not fully replicated, contrary to what studies in adult L2 writers have shown (see Wengelin, 2007).

Understanding L2 writers’ lived experiences of informal writing: A phenomenological approach

While much attention has been directed at formal or academic writing in teaching and researching second language (L2) writing, informal writing still holds a marginal position in the current writing research, suggesting a neglect of its value as teachable in schools and meaningful for personal development. Adopting a phenomenological approach, the present study investigates L2 university student writers’ perceptions of and experience with informal writing both in and out of the classroom context. Drawing upon semi-structured individual interviews and written artifacts, this study revealed five themes pertaining to student writers’ experiences of informal L2 writing and demonstrated its learning potential as playground, situated interaction, and learning strategy. This study has implications for L2 writing scholarship with its situated and nuanced understanding of L2 student writers’ experiences of and engagement with informal writing. It also discusses the imperative for a refined understanding of L2 informal writing instruction and curriculum design

Exploring the lexical profile of advanced L2 writers: Longitudinal data from the Russian Overseas Flagship program

AbstractThis study explores the lexical profile of essays written by 48 advanced learners of second language (L2) Russian who participated in the Russian Overseas Flagship, an intensive year‐long study abroad program designed to help students reach Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 proficiency in all skills. Using the lexical frequency profile and P–Lex as measures of vocabulary sophistication, the study found that over the 9 months of the program, students significantly increased their usage of words from the lowest frequency bands. This adds to previous findings that knowledge of lexical items at the 3,000–5,000 word frequency levels predicts reading proficiency at the ACTFL advanced high–superior level in Russian. However, the increase of vocabulary sophistication was not clearly correlated with improvements in the students’ writing proficiency scores, as measured on the ILR scale. A qualitative analysis of the students’ low‐frequency vocabulary usage reveals their control of native Russian vocabulary and derivational morphology. The analyses reveal the effects of writing tasks on student vocabulary usage.

Self-regulation and student engagement with feedback: The case of Chinese EFL student writers

Despite the role of feedback in facilitating self-regulation, learners' under-engagement with feedback in second language (L2) writing has been little researched. The multifaceted nature of feedback makes it challenging for L2 writers to engage with, and benefit from, teacher feedback. From the perspective of self-regulated learning, this qualitative case study examined how skilled and less-skilled self-regulators engaged with teacher written feedback in a Chinese EFL context. Data from multiple sources, including student texts, teacher on-script feedback, error logs, reflective journal entries, and interviews, revealed that the relationship between feedback and subsequent outcomes is mediated by students' engagement with the feedback process. It was found that skilled and less-skilled self-regulators displayed different degrees of engagement across cognitive, behavioural and affective dimensions. The findings may be attributed partly to students’ awareness of, and ability to interpret, feedback, agency of translating feedback into action, and willingness to scrutinise feedback and respond with appropriate strategies to use it. We conclude by highlighting the interaction among cognitive, behavioural, and affective engagement and offering some important pedagogical implications.

Student Engagement With Peer Feedback in L2 Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Chinese Secondary School Students

Abstract While the past few decades have witnessed a growing body of research on peer feedback and student engagement, little attention has been paid to student engagement with peer feedback in the secondary school classrooms. Based on multiple qualitative data including semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall, original, revised and final writing drafts as well as peer discussion recordings, this case study investigated how secondary school students engaged with peer feedback in behavior, cognition, and affect from both the feedback giver’s and receiver’s perspectives and what factors may influence their engagement with peer feedback. Data analysis showed that 1) student engagement with both giving and receiving peer feedback demonstrated dynamic and complex interactions among three dimensions; 2) students were engaged with peer feedback in different ways while playing the roles of feedback givers and receivers, showing deep engagement as a giver and superficial engagement as a receiver, and vice versa; 3) factors such as language proficiency, self-efficacy, personality and teachers’ guidance were found to influence student engagement with peer feedback. By shedding light on the multi-dimensional characteristics of students’ engagement from bidirectional perspectives, the study offers suggestions for educational practitioners to improve English learners’ engagement with peer feedback in L2 writing classes.

Authorial voice in source-based and opinion-based argumentative writing: Patterns of voice across task types and proficiency levels

This study examined first-year university students’ use of textual voice markers in two argumentative writing tasks. Previous findings of authorial voice have shown unclear relationships between voice elements and writing proficiency, making us question the pedagogical value of voice for L2 writers. However, it should be noted that the majority of studies on this topic have used timed opinion-based argumentative tasks which may not be the most relevant task type for academic writers, as they are often expected to build source-based argumentation. To fill this gap, we collected 110 opinion-based and source-based essays from 55 students and quantified a wide range of stance and engagement elements that appeared in the essays. Results showed a higher frequency of use of textual voices in opinion-based than in source-based writing, but there was no meaningful association between voice and writing proficiency in both tasks. However, different patterns were exhibited when we examined section-specific voice elements. In the source-based essays, more proficient writers used more varied types of hedges in the synthesis section but fewer boosters and reader pronouns in the introduction. With these quantitative results of authorial voice, we discuss our findings in the light of first-year writing instructional needs and writing assessment.

Effectiveness of written corrective feedback in developing L2 accuracy: A Bayesian meta-analysis

Corrective feedback on second language (L2) writing has remained one of the most heavily studied areas in applied linguistics, yet clear guidance for practitioners about how to provide it most effectively remains limited. Previous studies have meta-analysed written corrective feedback (WCF) research revealing conflicting findings in how WCF affects development in L2 writers’ accuracy over time. This study provides a needed update in light of a recent increase in (quasi)experimental WCF studies. It features several methodological advances by introducing a Bayesian approach to conducting a meta-analysis, which provides a more valid picture of the generalizable effects. The analysis allows distinction – for the first time at a meta-analytic level – between short-, medium-, and long-term effects of WCF. Results aggregate data from an initial 52 primary studies that utilized control groups revealing robust evidence of the durability of moderate effectiveness of WCF over time and deeper insight into the relative effectiveness of various types of WCF (e.g. direct, indirect, metalinguistic – all yielding similar effect sizes) across research contexts, writing task types, target error types, and instructional characteristics. We conclude with recommendations to help continue methodological advances in this domain.

Interactional Metadiscourse in Applied Linguistics Research Article Abstracts of Moroccan L2 Writers of English: A Small Corpus Investigation

Arguably, the Moroccan academic writing stratosphere has long been understudied. Such oversight is particularly discerning given how beneficial these studies can be for L2 writers of English. To this end, using Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse framework, the current research studies interactional metadiscourse practices in a small corpus of 15 applied linguistics research article abstracts. These were collected from two Moroccan-based peer-reviewed journals. A “thick” approach for both frequency and textual analysis was adopted. Such an approach led to having contextually grounded results better matching the corpus nature. We can report that the abstracts exhibited a limited degree of reader interaction, shown by the low percentage of interactional markers and their functional orientation. This was attributed to the nature of the discourse community, disciplinary changes, and rhetorical transfer. We recommend that more effort be taken towards creating better academic courses for students in Morocco and elsewhere. We call for scholars of the field to kindly consider students as a source of input in this type of research.