Chapter 6: “It’s Made to Match”: Linking L2 Reading and Writing through Textual Borrowing

Recent findings in L2 reading research cite the benefits to language development from supplementing reading with text-specific tasks that require learners to interact with the language in the text. One procedure for fostering learner interaction with textual language is the appropriation of textual language into writing and speaking. To date, however, professional discussions on textual appropriation tend to focus on the issues it raises regarding plagiarism rather than its potential facilitative effect on L2 language development. In particular, little is known about how instructed adult learners themselves view and work with texts as resources for their own learning. The paper addresses this issue, first, by arguing for a comprehensive reconsideration of textual appropriation’s critical role in any language learning. It locates textual borrowings within the gradual appropriation by all learners of a range of L2 textual features into their language use. For L2 learners and L2 instruction this highlights a need to understand in explicit terms the type of language that a specific text uses at the lexico-grammatical, sentential, and textual level.

Next, the paper outlines the pedagogical sequence implemented at the advanced level of a four-year integrated, content-based collegiate FL curriculum that explicitly attends to the textual language of the assigned thematically clustered readings. The paper then presents data from classroom observations, learner interviews, and analyses of learner writing to characterize how 6 advanced FL learners viewed and responded to this explicit instructional approach to narrow reading and writing development, focusing in particular on their approach toward and the type, degree, development of their textual appropriations across two semesters. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this learner-based perspective on textual borrowing for L2 reading and writing instruction.