Constructive Processes in Completing Reading-to-Write Tasks: Selecting, Organising and Connecting
- 1 School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China
- 2 School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China
Abstract
This study investigated how 16 English as a Foreign Language writers constructed meaning from texts through reading and for texts through writing in responding to a source-based writing task. Results showed that most of the writers engaged in selecting, organising and connecting processes during task completion. The participants not only selected information from source materials, but they also searched for ideas from their prior knowledge in order to generate links or new meaning. Organising processes were found before the participants started to write, although they were more prone to construct the structure of the source materials and their own text concurrently during writing. Evidence from the participants’ eye movements and verbal recalls proved that connecting and generating are not a one-off act, but an extended and ongoing process that may occur at different phase of reading and writing.
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