College and University Interweaving narrow ER into the L2 writing curriculum more

Thu, Aug 10, 14:25-15:45 Asia/Tokyo

Drawing on empirical evidence that supports reading and writing integration in L2 instruction, this study explores opportunities and challenges of incorporating “narrow ER”--reading ER materials provided by the teacher on the same topics as writing prompts--into the L2 writing curriculum. Nineteen Japanese college students completed surveys and were interviewed about their perception. Analysis of the survey data indicated that narrow ER engagement and subsequent peer discussion lower L2 students’ affective filters by alleviating cognitive anxiety and inhibiting avoidance behavior. Interviewees reported that narrow ER engagement not only introduced them to fresh ideas but also provided opportunities to exercise paraphrasing skills. Repeated exposure to relevant, essential vocabularies was shown to help increase levels of confidence in language use when drafting their own work. These observations suggest that incorporating narrow ER can be complementary to teaching L2 writing, filling in student writers’ knowledge gap in lexis and content.