Cognitive Processes In An Integrated Reading-to-write Communicative Task

Reading-to-write(RTW)integrated tasks have been gaining momentum in recent years.Considering the multidimensional nature of the construct,validity studies of such tasks are of primary concern,which generally involved investigating the products or the processes of RTW tasks.While findings from the former suggested decisive differences in the construct of writing-only tasks and RTW tasks,the latter provided further in-depth understanding,demonstrated by descriptive lists of processes and in-close investigation of certain specific processes.Additionally,although it is generally acknowledged that integrated tasks can enhance authenticity of test tasks and are therefore of more communicative values,previous studies on RTW tasks mainly explored such tasks as summarization or argumentative writing,where test-takers are not provided with a communicative situation with a specific communication purpose.Therefore,it remains unexplored what processes are applied and how reading and writing processes interact in a communicative RTW test task.Drawing on evidence from the eye-tracking,keystroke logging and stimulated recall interviews which unobtrusively reveal the real-time composing processes,the present study aims to address the gaps by investigating a computer-based RTW communicative task in English Test for International Communication(ETIC).Fourteen undergraduate and postgraduate students took part in the research.The whole test-taking process of each individual was recorded,with eye-movements captured and keystrokes logged.When the task has been completed,stimulated recall interviews,using the recorded eye-movements and keystrokes as prompts,were conducted to collect further data on test-taking processes.The results suggested that a wide range of cognitive and metacognitive processes of reading and writing were elicited during the task completion with writing processes taking up much larger proportion.In addition,a complex approach was adopted to complete the task where the processes were dynamically and contingently intertwined in light of the interaction between reading and writing processes and clear differences in the processes in different time periods.Importantly,what,when and how the processes were used had a significant relationship with the task scores.The current study expands on literature research on processes of RTW tasks,bring to the fore the methodological issues and justify the validity of the ETIC written communicative task.In future work,more attention should be paid to the study of the temporal dimension of RTW processes as well as the refinement of the mixed-methods design.