The Role of Task Representation in Completing an Integrated L2 Writing Task: Evidence from Eye-Tracking and Stimulated Recall
- 1 School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China
- 2 School of Economics and Finance, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
- 3 School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China
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.
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