An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

particular college and university professors (Vann, Meyer and Lorenz, 1984; 
Santos, 1988) and, to a lesser extent, on editors of scholarly journals (Gosden, 
1992). This research has been done primarily through surveys and addresses 
academics’ beliefs, practices, expectations and reactions with regard to errors, 
literacy skills and writing problems. The question of whether and how students 
should be initiated into the academic discourse community has also been debated.
In recent years, the study of genre in second language writing has become very 
popular. In addition to general treatments of genre, many studies of particular 
written genres have appeared. Some address general types or modes of writing, 
such as narrative, descriptive and argumentative writing as well as personal, 
academic, business, technical and legal texts. A number of more specific text types 
addressed include summaries, essay examinations, laboratory reports, research 
papers, theses, dissertations, research articles, experimental research reports and 
letters of reference.
Instruction in writing English for academic purposes focuses primarily on 
academic discourse genres and the range and nature of academic writing tasks 
(Swales, 1990; Hyon, 1996). This instruction is meant to help students work 
successfully within the academic context. The instructional methodology 
suggested aims at recreating, as well as is possible, the conditions under which 
actual university writing takes place and involves closely examining and 
analysing academic discourse genres and writing task specifications; selecting and 
intensively studying materials appropriate for a given task; evaluating, screening, 
synthesizing and organizing relevant information from these sources; and 
presenting these data in a form acceptable to the academy.
To sum up, in the English for academic purposes tradition, the emphasis is 
placed on the production of texts that will be acceptable at an English-medium 
institution of higher education; learning to write is part of becoming socialized 
into the academic community. The writer is pragmatic and interested primarily 
in meeting the standards necessary for academic success; the reader is a player in 
the academic community who has clear and specific expectations for academic 
discourse. The text is viewed as a more or less conventional response to a particular 
writing task that fits a recognizable genre; the context is the academic discourse 
community.
Issues that Transcend Traditions
There are a number of important issues in second language writing that transcend 
the traditions described above and need to be touched upon in even the most 
cursory survey of this research area. These include programmatic, contextual, 
disciplinary and political issues.
A number of ‘programmatic’ issues have been addressed in the research. These 
include second language writing programmes and programme administration, 
needs analyses and placement. A great deal has been written on specific instructional 
practices and issues. These include writing conferences and workshops, the use of 
model texts, peer and teacher response, peer tutoring, the use of journals, writing 

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Writing
about literature, sentence combining, reformulation, plagiarism, sequenced 
writing assignments and content-based instruction (see Reid, 1993; Grabe and 
Kaplan, 1996; Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005).
However, the programmatic issue that has received by far the most recognition 
is the assessment of second language writing (see Hamp-Lyons, 1991, 2001; 
Hamp-Lyons and Kroll, 1996). Second language writing assessment has been 
written about from a number of perspectives. These include test types, specifically 
‘indirect’ or ‘objective’ (wherein no written text is produced or examined) and 
‘direct’ tests (wherein a text is produced and examined), for example, holistic, 
analytic/multiple trait and primary trait tests. Another basic issue is ‘text rating’ 
or grading; here issues such as rater training, rater judgements and the difference 
between rating done by individuals with and without experience with second 
language writers. Also central are questions of test validity and reliability. In 
addition, a number of variables that could potentially affect ratings have been 
explored. These include ‘linguistic variables’ (primarily lexical and syntactic); 
‘rhetorical variables’ and the writer’s subject matter knowledge, cultural 
expectations, nationality, reading comprehension and amount of reading done in 
both the first and second languages. Elements such as writing prompts, topics and 
time constraints have also been explored. Different types of tests, for example, 
writing proficiency exams, entrance and exit exams and placement exams have 
been described. Finally, some specific second language writing tests: the Test of 
Written English (TWE), the English as a Second Language Composition Profile 
(Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel and Hughey, 1981) and the writing sub-
test of the International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) test have been 
developed, deployed and critiqued.
A number of instructional contexts have been described in the literature. These 
include, most generally, the academic discourse community (at both the graduate 
and undergraduate levels) and a number of specific programme or course types 
therein: basic or ‘remedial’ writing courses, bilingual education programmes, 
immersion and submersion programmes, sheltered ESL courses, mainstream 
(native English speaker dominant) courses, cross-cultural composition courses, 
writing across the curriculum programmes, intensive language programmes and 
writing centres. Also addressed are particular instructional contexts in academia 
(engineering, natural sciences, science and technology, and sociology courses) or in 
the private sector (corporate and medical contexts) (see Belcher and Braine, 1995).
In recent years, and following from work in composition studies, interest has 
grown in disciplinary matters; for example, the nature of L2 writing as a discipline 
or area of research; its standing in relation to fields like rhetoric, composition 
studies, second language studies/acquisition and linguistics; and the future 
direction of research in second language writing (Matsuda, 2003; Santos, Atkinson, 
Erickson, Matsuda and Silva, 2000). The last two decades or so have also seen 
increased interest in and explicit treatment of matters of politics and ideology 
growing out of post-modern thought, social constructionist inquiry and critical 
theory and pedagogy (Santos, 1992, 2001; Severino, 1993; Benesch, 2001).
The current situation in second language writing studies is one of reflection on 
and re-examination of basic assumptions about the nature of second language 
writing and writing instruction, of rejecting easy answers to complex problems, of 
taking stock of what has been learned and trying to put it together as a coherent 
whole, of synthesis and model building, of realizing that there will be no magic 
bullet, no particular approach or procedure that will work with all people in all 

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places at all times. It is a situation in which second language writing professionals 
are beginning to seize the opportunity to escape the confines of a particular 
tradition, to resist simplistic methods of ‘teacher training’, to reflect critically on 
‘what the research means’, to discard off-the-shelf instructional approaches, to 
use their knowledge of theory and the results of inquiry to decide for themselves 
what makes sense for their students, for their objectives and teaching styles and 
for their instructional contexts. In short, it is an exciting time to be involved in 
such a vital, vibrant and evolving area of research and instruction.
Further Reading
Here we provide some basic works on second language writing and writing instruction. 
For a more extensive listing, see the annotated bibliographies of Tannacito (1995), Silva, 
Brice and Reichelt (1999) and the brief bibliographies that appear in each issue of the