Languaging in Story Rewriting Tasks by Chinese EFL Students

The present study examined the effects of languaging by asking four pairs of Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students to rewrite a story from a different perspective through three stages (composing--comparing- revising). Multiple sources of data were collected, including pair discussions, co-constructed writings, individual revised texts, and interviews. Data analysis found that languaging, as an important meditational tool, helped the participants to co-construct meaning and solve problems (e.g. comprehending the original text, structuring their ideas, finding proper expressions) in the process of writing. Languaging was also observed to have immediate, delayed, and ongoing effects on joint writing and individual revision. This study suggests that an opportunity to engage in languaging with the support of source readings and models can facilitate the generation of students' ideas and expressions necessary for writing and allow them to reflect on their language knowledge in the process of writing and revising, resulting in the improvement of their L2 writing performance.