Profiling second language writing teachers: Discourses from the published literature

Abstract

In L2 writing education, the topic of L2 writing teachers, who play critical roles in nurturing and shaping students' L2 writing abilities across diverse educational and social contexts, has received proliferating research attention over the past decades. Despite the accumulated studies in the investigation of L2 writing teachers, nonexistent studies have provided a holistic and comprehensive picture of L2 writing teachers in terms of their unique identities and complex experiences of teaching and learning to teach (Hirvela & Belcher, 2007; Lee, 2010). Therefore, this position paper reports discourses from the published literature on L2 writing teachers by addressing the ten key questions in this area, respectively, on L2 writing teachers' roles, beliefs and perspectives, identities, writing teaching, feedback giving, assessment, received education, and expertise development. These ten questions respond to the “what” in L2 writing teachers (such as roles, identity, and beliefs), and the “how” of L2 writing teachers, including how they instruct, provide feedback, assess, and develop professional expertise. This conceptual paper sheds light on multiple dimensions of L2 writing teachers to reveal a holistic and comprehensive picture of L2 writing teachers in terms of their beliefs, practices, and experiences of teaching and learning to teach.