Teaching for Transfer to First-Year L2 Writers

Previous studies have identified that genres and genre knowledge are not only pivotal for the development of writing expertise but also for facilitating writing-related transfer. However, little research concerns issues of teaching genres for writing transfer to first-year English as a second language (L2) writers at universities in the US. This article attempts to develop a genre-based pedagogic framework for L2 transfer teaching, aiming to help first-year L2 students address linguistic, rhetorical, and genre-bound challenges they confront and improve their writing expertise, as well as develop their ability of writing transfer across disciplines. The goals of this article are dual: (a) to address an existing gap in the literature and research on transfer, and (b) provide academic writing instructions for teaching first-year L2 writers at universities in the United States.

Automatic or Controlled Writing?

The objective of this study was to attempt to distinguish the various processes of producing SMS spelling forms. The production of these different spelling forms was compared by means of an experimental paradigm: the dual task. This paradigm aimed at identifying the attentional resources necessary for the process of producing SMS spelling. Another way in which to address the degree of automation of these production processes was to compare SMS productions in terms of the level of SMS writing expertise. The results of this study demonstrated that the spelling forms produced in SMS language (eSMS), and therefore their production process, differ according to the degree of SMS writing expertise and the attention that the participants are able to devote to the SMS writing task. The results confirm that SMS writing represents a cognitive cost for novice texters and tends to become automatic as the users acquire expertise.