ESL College Learners’ Interactive Perspective and Its Influence on Reading-Writing Practices and Development

The L2 learners’ perspective, reflecting individual and social truths to which students adhere in daily learning, is likely to influence their approaches to literacy practices and thus literacy development. From a social-cognitive aspect of reading-writing integration, L2 learners’ perspective on integrating reading and writing could be a key construct to explain different ways learners engage in reading-writing practices, which is one of the challenges in L2 classrooms. As an attempt to explore the theoretical links with the perspective, this study developed the conceptual model that can empirically test those relations; two dimensions (individual and social) of practice variables, and literacy development in reading-writing connection. The set of hypotheses drawn from the model were tested using factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques. The test results supported that L2 learners viewing the reading-writing process as the same tended to engage more in reading practices connected to writing ones, experiencing higher level of reading-writing development. More importantly, a social aspect of reading-writing practices served as a mediating channel connecting the perspective variable to the development variable. The present study argues that the L2 learners’ perspective should be taken seriously in understanding the inseparable connection between their literacy practices and development.