The Effects of Integrated Tasks on the Reading and Writing Processes Among Japanese EFL Learners

抄録

This study focuses on reading-to-write tasks; these tasks require both reading and writing skills to complete. In such tasks, the written material is based on source information, which is a common activity as part of daily life. The uniqueness of integrated tasks is that learners use not only individual skills but also integration processes. In the case of reading-to-write tasks, this integration process is called discourse synthesis (Spivey, 1997). To investigate the effects of task instruction on reading-to-write tasks, this study classified specific tasks into four types based on previous research instructions and analyzed them statistically in terms of reading and writing processes with 36 EFL students. Participants read two source texts and were assigned to one reading-to-write tasks and their cognitive activities during the tasks were measured using the think-aloud method. The results revealed that task differences did not affect learners’ reading processes, while it affected writing processes. These results support previous studies that insisted on the significance of task instruction (Rouet & Britt, 2011; Weijen, 2009). This study concludes with a brief summary of the findings and presents some limitations and theoretical directions for future research, and implications for EFL practitioners.