SOME STEPS TOWARDS A SOCIO-COGNITIVE INTERPRETATION OF SECOND LANGUAGE COMPOSITION PROCESSES

Abstract

There has been a tendency in research to interpret L2 composition processes in cognitive terms and to consider the social aspects of L2 writing as incommensurate with the former. In an attempt to initiate a more integrated interpretation of results, the present paper identifies three areas, within the fíeld of process-oriented L2 composition research, where individual text production is shown to be socially mediated. These areas, which have been derived from the expertise approach to writing, include (i) the impact on writers' performance of the task environment; (ii) the situated nature of the skilled-unskilled distinction; and (iii) the role played by previous literacy experiences in the development of a number of aspects of composing. Recommendations for future research include the analysis of social and contextual factors mediating the transfer of writing skills across languages and the possibility of looking at individual witing as a dialogic phenomenon through a reconceptualisation of the notion of problem-space.

Keywords

• writing processes
• second language writing
• cognitive approaches
• sociocultural approaches
• writing experience
• transfer
• problem space
• writing skill
• writing task
• writing context