L2 Students’ Academic Literacy Development Guided by Teacher Written Feedback: A Writing-to-Learn Perspective

Abstract

Non-native graduate students need to master specialized disciplinary knowledge and genre
\nconventions to perform academic writing tasks. The learning practice is always a process of legitimate
\nperipheral participation where students are inducted into their chosen discipline through collaboration
\nand interaction with people in their social and academic network. Adopting a writing-to-learn
\nperspective, the study sought to examine how teacher written feedback guided L2 graduate students
\nto engage in legitimate, peripheral, and participatory activities with the purpose of understanding
\nteacher expectations, learning disciplinary conventions and developing academic literacy in the
\ndiscipline of applied linguistics. The exploration demonstrated that teacher written feedback
\nprovided opportunities for students to engage in dialogic interaction with various parties through
\ninterpreting and/or clarifying teacher written feedback. These legitimate peripheral participation
\nactivities not only enabled L2 students to gain necessary disciplinary knowledge for successful
\npapers, but also situated them in relation to more experienced members and by extension to the field.