Role of the ESL college learners' perspectives on integrating L2 reading and writing: Influence of those perspectives on literacy behaviors

This study, using English as a Second Language (ESL) College learners, is an exploration of the role that Second Language (L2) learners' perspectives on integrating reading and writing played in understanding their reading-writing behaviors. The research, following a qualitative research paradigm based on constructivism, was divided into two phases (survey research and teacher research) that explored the link between learners' perspectives and their actual reading-writing behaviors.; The purpose of the first phase was to access the range of perspectives from less integrating continua to more integrating continua using a large-scale random sample (n = 990) obtained through an internet survey. Survey data collected were also used to establish the criterion perspectives in phase 2. The results showed that L2 learners who viewed the reading-writing process as the same tended to engage more in reading behaviors connected to writing behaviors and to engage more in reading-writing behaviors in the classroom.; In phase 2, using the criterion perspective ranges established through the survey research, I explored whether L2 learners' perspectives could help explain similarities and differences in patterns of reading-writing behaviors in the context of two ESL college composition classrooms. Multiple sources of data collected over the semester were used to examine the different ways reading-writing behaviors were connected to each other during the composing process.; The results in phase 2 are as follows. First, the four perspective groups differed in terms of the specific reading-writing behaviors and types of intermediate texts produced and elaborated during the composing process. Second, as the semester progressed, students' perspectives changed toward a more integrating continuum. Third, the students' perspectives were also able to explain their behaviors for using source information. These results imply that the students engage in reading-writing behaviors consistent with their perspectives. The present study argues that L2 learners' perspectives should be taken as a key construct in understanding their reading-writing behaviors involved in the composing process.