Considering what we know and need to know about second language writing

Abstract

AbstractThe relatively young field of second language (L2) writing has come a long way in the past few decades but still has far to go if it wishes to broaden its research foci to consider a greater diversity of writing contexts. As a largely pedagogically-motivated area, L2 writing has so far mainly focused on writing in English as a second language, especially that of young adults in English-medium universities. Far less investigated by L2 writing researchers have been the needs of younger L2 writers, at primary and secondary-school levels, and adults outside of universities. Still less examined have been the teaching and learning of writing in foreign language contexts, most notably in languages other than English. These gaps have important implications for knowledge construction in L2 writing.