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Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 43:3 (2020) ► pp.277–301

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Exploring the effects of web-based communication tasks on the development and transferability of audience awareness in L2 writers

ORCiD logo with link | Nagoya City University
 | Kinjo Gakuin University
 | Rikkyo University
 | Arizona State University
Published online: 20 February 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.18035.sas
Abstract
This article reports on two quasi-experimental studies that investigated the possible development and transfer of audience awareness in novice EFL writers as they engaged in online writing tasks through a Social Networking Service (SNS). Japanese students from two universities were asked to write, read, and comment on other students’ writing once a week. The two studies were arranged sequentially so as to capture in an exploratory but jointly illuminating manner whether and how the “elusive” (Hyland, K. (2005). Representing readers in writing: Student and expert practices. Linguistics and Education, 16(4), 363–377. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) construct of “sense of audience” can develop and transfer across genres. The results of both studies suggest that the SNS environment can help L2 writers develop audience awareness and transfer that awareness across genres when two conditions are met: (1) the genre of the SNS tasks should be perceived as similar to that for which transfer was expected; and (2) the students did not develop a sense of audience in previous writing instruction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Audience awareness: Operational definition
    • 1.2Transfer of learning across genres and media in second language learning
  • 2.Study 1
    • 2.1Study 1 – method
      • 2.1.1Context and participants
      • 2.1.2Pre- and post-SNS argumentative writing tasks
      • 2.1.3Impacts-of-SNS questionnaire
      • 2.1.4Transferability questionnaire
      • 2.1.5Procedure
    • 2.2Study 1 – results
    • 2.3Study 1 – discussion
  • 3.Study 2
    • 3.1Study 2 – method
      • 3.1.1Context and participants
      • 3.1.2Data and procedure
    • 3.2Study 2 – results
    • 3.3Study 2 – discussion
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
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