The majority of US university students studying foreign languages are enrolled in introductory courses that are typically part of a coordinated curriculum. Such courses conventionally include the assessment of second language (L2) writing skills. However, given that these assessments can be broadly conceived and vary by program, their design and…

Language immersion programs seek to develop multilingual, multiliterate individuals able to engage with academic content. Studies of immersion students' language development provide details regarding language proficiency and accuracy, yet they generally do not address how features of written, academic language, for example, syntactic and lexical…

It is often assumed that heritage language learners (HLLs) speak better than they write--by themselves and by educators alike. This article draws on data from writing and oral proficiency ratings plus self-evaluations of 35 Spanish HLLs to investigate: (i) whether Spanish HLLs actually tend to receive higher ratings in speaking than in writing;…

The area of individual differences (ID) in second language (L2) has been a point of interest for many researchers; however, the impact of ID on the writing performance of L2 learners has not been explored exhaustively. Only a limited number of studies have examined the role of language aptitude, vocabulary size, and working memory (WM) on L2…

The present study aimed to examine the relationships between reading and writing, and the role of L2 proficiency in moderating these relationships, among 8th and 11th graders in South Korea. A total of 257 eighth and 322 eleventh graders learning English as a foreign language participated in Study 1 and Study 2, respectively. The findings…

This study explores the effect of collaborative writing (CW) and peer feedback (PF) practices on subsequent individual writing assignments. Two groups of university students in a Spanish as a foreign language course experienced both CW and PF (Group 1 CW then PF; Group 2 PF then CW), and pre and posttests were analyzed for syntactic complexity,…

The impact of task complexity on integrated writing performance is under-researched. This study purports to investigate the effect of graph complexity and planning time on graph writing performance as well as graph description strategies. Ninety-six EFL learners of English were assigned into three groups to examine the effect of three planning…

The first purpose of this empirical study was to assess and validate the Academic Writing Self-Efficacy Belief Questionnaire (AWSEBQ) framed by social cognitive theory. The second purpose was to evaluate the predictive effects of different aspects of self-efficacy beliefs on academic writing performance. Data were collected from 743 learners at a…

The longitudinal study investigated the directionality and transfer mechanism of cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness between L1 and L2 in predicting early writing (word dictation) in Chinese children learning English as L2. Ninety primary school Grade 1 (P1) students were assessed on phonological awareness in Cantonese (syllable…

This article reports on a multiliteracies-based experiential learning curriculum designed for intermediate French built upon the framework of a global simulation pedagogy. Students adopted the roles of fictitious characters living together in an apartment building in Paris and carried out written and spoken tasks through the voice of their…

This study investigated how task complexity influences second language (L2) writing. Specifically, it focused on the possibility that prompts can create different demands at different stages of L2 writing production and on ways that prompts may affect learners' engagement in the revision of their writing. Fifty-one English as a foreign/second…

Writing occupies a central position in university foreign language studies programs, yet little is known about the nature of writing instruction in upper-division content courses. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this study, which was part of an internal program assessment, explores faculty and student perceptions of students' writing…

This article describes what Intermediate and Advanced heritage language learners of Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Spanish can do when writing in their heritage language, and what prevents these writers from performing at the next proficiency level. One hundred eighty-seven samples were collected using the ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test. Each…

This article explores the relationship between the writing proficiency of heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Spanish and their context of acquisition, educational experiences, and language practices. Biographical data and proficiency ratings obtained with the ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test were collected for 187 adult heritage…

Writing in postsecondary foreign language contexts in North America has received far less attention in the curriculum than the development of oral proficiency. This article describes one institution's process of confronting the challenges not only of recognizing the contribution of writing to students' overall linguistic development, but also of…