| Popis: |
Learning transfer has drawn increased attention as an important variable in the field of the second language (L2) writing. In alignment with this growing interest as well as the focus of the current study, James (2012) investigated undergraduate L2 students’ motivation to transfer to other contexts what they were being taught in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course. L2 writing specialists have continued to be interested in transfer from L2 writing courses, but a clear picture of the situation has yet to emerge. The current study, based on the research carried out by James and in response to the transfer gap in the field of second language writing, focused on whether and how multilingual undergraduate students transferred their writing-related learning within and beyond writing courses as well as their motivation to transfer, with a specific interest in their transfer of source-based writing skills and knowledge. I was especially interested in exploring the value of the theory of adaptive transfer (DePalma and Ringer, 2011) in interpreting the current study’s data and using it while looking at both “near” and “far” transfer in different settings. To examine L2 undergraduate students’ transfer engagement across contexts over time, this qualitative study collected data for two semesters, primarily through recall interviews based on participants’ written texts, as well as oral interviews, classroom observations, survey questionaries, and field notes. By following three student participants throughout the two semesters (the first semester for the EAP course and the following semester’s academic courses), this study sought to provide a comprehensive portrait of how these multilingual undergraduate students engaged in writing-related transfer and their motivation to transfer over time. The findings show that the three participants engaged in both citation-based and rhetorically-based transfer within the near transfer site (the EAP course), with more focus on reusing course instruction than reshaping it. The study also found that there was considerable transfer outside the EAP course, with some reshaping of prior learning. Regarding the extent of motivation to transfer, it varied across the participants and was affected by a number of variables. A general conclusion that emerged was that because the three participants were first-year undergraduate students, writing might have appeared to be an insignificant skill to them at that point in time, which would work against the development of motivation to transfer.This multiple case study answered the call for empirical studies of multilingual students’ transfer engagement across contexts over time by extending the range of L2 transfer research, especially relative to the recently proposed theory of adaptive transfer and its focus on reuse and reshaping. It sheds light on both “near” and “far” transfer and introduces another way of categorizing types of transfer by looking at the frequency of citation-based transfer and rhetorically based transfer, which in turn made it easier to explore reuse and reshaping. The investigation of these different dimensions of transfer also made it possible to delve into multilingual students’ experiences with source-based writing. The study’s findings have valuable implications for EAP writing course design with respect to transfer as well as the complexities involved in the study of transfer, especially among first-year undergraduate students. |
