Strategic processing of integrated writing tasks in the context of English for academic purposes
Authors:   , Delgado-Osorio Ximena 
Published: November 2024

With the internationalisation of education, English has become the lingua franca in higher education and academic contexts. Moreover, there has been an increase in graduate and postgraduate programmes in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in universities worldwide, where English language skills are essential for academic success. In this context, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which refers to the teaching and assessment of English language skills required for academic tasks, is becoming increasingly important. Within EAP, integrated tasks that combine receptive and productive language skills to produce an academic output have become a popular format for assessing academic language skills. Integrated writing tasks (also called reading-into-writing tasks) require students to read and understand one or more source texts, then extract and synthesise the relevant ideas, present these ideas with precision, and paraphrase them to integrate them into a written product, such as a summary or argumentative text. The present dissertation investigates the strategic processing of integrated writing tasks in an EAP context. Specifically, the purpose was to understand how German students strategically process different types of integrated writing tasks in English and how this is related to the task genre and the quality of students' written products. The three aims of this dissertation were: 1. To identify strategic processes that are elicited during the completion of integrated writing tasks in an EAP context. 2. To explore the differences in strategic processing between summary and argumentative integrated writing. 3. To analyse the relationship between the strategic processing of integrated writing tasks and the quality of students' written products. For this purpose, this dissertation was conducted within the framework of MASK project (Modelling of Academic Language Competences), which aimed to empirically establish the construct of competence that underlies the successful completion of integrated writing tasks. The dissertation comprises three studies, drawing on data from both the pilot and main phases of the MASK project. Study 1 analysed data from the pilot study using think-aloud protocols (TAPs) gathered while students completed integrated writing tasks. Studies 2 and 3 used log data and text quality ratings from the main phase. Study 1 investigated students' source text reading processes and strategies as they completed the integrated writing tasks, as well as differences in how students strategically processed the source text according to specific task characteristics. Study 2 focused on the use of highlighting and note-taking tools in integrated summary and argumentation tasks. Specifically, whether there are differences in how students use annotation tools when writing a summary task versus an argumentative task, and what is the relationship between students' use of annotation tools and the quality of their written products. Study 3 explored the sequential processing patterns in integrated writing and their association with student outcomes using log data. These three studies contribute uniquely to each aim of this dissertation. Regarding the first aim of identifying strategic processing in integrated writing tasks, the results of the studies highlight the importance of considering not only the repertoire and frequency of strategies, but also when and where strategies are used during task processing. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the field of integrated writing assessment, confirming the key role of discourse synthesis processes within the construct of integrated writing and suggesting the inclusion of resources for selecting, organising and connecting ideas within the task environment to gain better insights into strategic processes. With regard to the second aim of understanding the nuances between task genres in terms of strategic processing, the results show that argumentative and summary tasks share common processes characteristic of integrated writing, but also elicit different processes, supporting that they should be considered independently in the assessment and instruction of academic language competence. Finally, in relation to the third aim, the results confirm that strategic processing seems to be related to students' text quality. Therefore, it is important to consider the effectiveness of strategy use in relation to task demands and student outcomes. In this way, EAP researchers and practitioners could gain a better understanding of effective strategic processing in order to improve teaching and assessment practices that lead to students' academic success.