“An Italian Mode of Thinking”: Perspectives From College Foreign Language Writers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Second Language Research and Pedagogy

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the perspectives of foreign language writers on the process of writing in a foreign language in a college context. The data collected through interviews with eight writers is analyzed qualitatively in light of current theories of multilingualism as dynamic and recursive (Garcìa, 2009) and theories of multilingual writing as supported by resources from multiple languages (Horner, Lu & Matsuda, 2010, and Manchón, 2009). Results related to language choices in planning and composing support a view of native and foreign languages as interrelated and mutually supportive, while concerns expressed by the students in regard to surface aspects of target language writing are consistent with the inhibition hypothesis (Manchón, Roca De Larios, & Murphy, 2009).

Author

• Alessia Valfredini, Fordham University