Methodological Advances in Investigating L2 Writing Processes:Introduction

The last three decades have seen a significant advancement in describing and understanding the processes involved in second language (L2) writing (for recent reviews, see Cumming, 2016; Polio, 2012; Roca de Larios, Nicolás-Conesa, & Coyle, 2016). Much of the existing research has been cognitive in orientation and concerned with capturing the online behaviors of L2 writers (i.e., directly observable characteristics of the writing process such as pausing) and the cognitive operations that underlie L2 written production (e.g., planning, linguistic encoding). In the cognitive paradigm, the motivation for studying L2 writing processes comes from two main sources. First, research into L2 writing processes is important for theory-building purposes. When constructing and assessing theoretical models of L2 writing, it is not sufficient to look at the linguistic product of the composing process. To avoid the risk of construct underrepresentation (Norris & Ortega, 2003), it is also crucial to provide evidence about the behaviors of L2 writers and the cognitive activities underlying those behaviors. Second, it is believed that information about what L2 writers do when they compose a text can yield useful insights for L2 instruction and assessment. There is increasing evidence, for example, that understanding the processes in which good L2 writers engage may help identify what strategies may be beneficial to teach (e.g., Olson & Land, 2007; van Gelderen, Ootsdam, & van Schooten, 2011). Knowledge about how observable writing behaviors relate to underlying cognitive processes could also help diagnose sources of writing difficulty, and thereby enable educators to adjust instruction to better meet their students’ needs. Last but not least, research into L2 writing processes can also provide instructors with insights into the language learning potential of writing, that is, how the act of written production may foster cognitive processes, which are assumed to facilitate L2 development (Manchón & Roca de Larios, 2007a). In short, L2 writing process research may inform L2 instruction and assessment by advancing our understanding of both the learning-to-write and writing-to-learn dimensions of L2 writing (Manchón, 2011)