Recursive Cognitive Processes in L2 Writing of Korean EFL Students

This study investigated the writing process performed by six Korean EFL learners. These advanced writers were asked to compose four narrative writings and four argumentative writings in L2 under think-aloud conditions. Analysis of the forty eight think-aloud protocols revealed that all of the writers notably exhibited cyclical writing when producing a single idea unit. First, when generating ideas with less demanding contents, the writers involved the single brainstorming cognitive strategy of 'idea generation (IG)' directly in L2, and this sequence of a single strategy was shown repeatedly in think-aloud protocol data. Next, the 'idea generation (IG)-translation (T)lexical searching (LS)' pattern was the second most frequently occurring strategy. This pattern is a partial section out of the full set of the 'idea organization (IG)-idea generation (IG)-lexical searching (LS)-translation (T)-text examination (TE)metacommenting (MC)' writing pattern. In argumentative writing, the noticeable patterns were the '1O (L1)-T,' 'IO-IG (L1)-T' and 'IG (L1)-LS-T' patterns. Meanwhile, for the narrative genre, the noticeable writing patterns were the 'IG (L2),' 'IG (L1)-T' and 'IG (L1 )-LS-T' patterns.