The past few decades have witnessed a remarkable surge of research interest in written corrective feedback (WCF). Given its pivotal role in the writing classroom, WCF has remained one of the most vibrant and dynamic areas for scholarly investigations. The aim of this article is to chart future directions for WCF research. To do this, it first…

Research on second language (L2) collaborative writing (CW) has proliferated over the recent decade and will continue to bloom due to the changing landscape of writing and learning in the digital age. This article provides a research agenda on CW in L2 classrooms. We illustrate six research themes for future research inquiry by pointing out the…

Written corrective feedback (WCF) has been widely deployed in teaching second language (L2) writing skills, partly because it is generally perceived to promote and consolidate learning. Whilst a burgeoning body of literature affirms its virtues pertaining to fostering L2 learners' writing performance, which method of correction could yield the…

Canada's social and educational policies have always involved immigrant settlement and English/French bilingualism. Research on writing in second languages emerged in the 1980s from graduate programs of education and applied linguistics at major universities in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver, particularly done by scholars investigating…

This special issue is devoted to describing and evaluating new methods for analyzing online writing processes in a second language (L2). As all the contributors have stated, the aim is to identify the cognitive processes underlying writing. The ultimate aim is to employ observations and experimental manipulations of these processes to build…

In this article, we investigate a new construct for conceptualizing learning transfer with writing knowledge: Transformative Experience (TE). With origins in educational psychology, TE has been effective for promoting transfer with scientific concepts in previous research, but not yet considered in relation to writing or other presumably…

Over the past 20 years, claims about how and why student writing can serve learning have changed markedly. This has been partly due to new technologies displacing writing as a predominant resource for learning, prompting new sense-making practices and shifts in how these changes are theorized. Learners now routinely collaborate to generate,…

Higher education research is a developing field internationally, attracting more and more researchers from a great variety of disciplinary backgrounds within and beyond higher education institutions. As such, it is an arena within which a wide range of theories, methods, and methodologies are being applied. As an expanding multidisciplinary area…

Studies investigating cultural influences on second-language writing have been mainly product-oriented. Moreover, research on writing processes has mostly focused on the strategies of writing and learning to write. Writing processes where we can see the evolution of the writer's identity and beliefs have been less adequately addressed. Therefore,…

Relates one participant's impressions of an international conference on writing that was held in May 1979 at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Notes the differences between American and British writing research. (RL)

Presents a personal selection of recent research on writing and learning that provides a coherent view of children as active, intentional learners. (RL)

Reviews recent complex and somewhat confusing evidence on writing-to-learn. Draws on the field of cognitive psychology to offer a way to reconceptualize how researchers might approach the study of the impact of writing on learning. Considers five methods for assessing structural changes in knowledge due to writing. (MG)

Investigates how and when novice employees (who are also seniors at a cooperative engineering college) learn to write like engineers. Finds that students perceive abstract rules and training as least useful and view the embodied experience of models and interaction with experts as most productive, particularly when combined with practice and…

Looks at the nature of introspective accounts and the usefulness of such accounts in studies of the composing process. Concludes that retrospective journal accounts are a rich source of information because they permit consideration of the complex context in which composing occurs. (FL)

How learning is understood in everyday schooling and conceptualized in research varies a great deal, as does the way in which writing is used for enhancing learning. This paper reviews recent research conducted mainly in Europe, North America, and Australia to outline what kind of challenges research is facing at the moment. The paper begins with…