Scholarly trends and representations of L2 writers in second language writing: A corpus-assisted discourse study

This study examines the discursive constructions of scholarly trends and the representations of L2 writers in the field of second language writing (SLW) from 1995 to 2022. In the first analysis phase of this corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS), high-frequency lexical items displaying significant diachronic shifts were identified using coefficient of variance (CV) and Kendall’s tau measures. They were then explored through collocation, concordance, and additional qualitative analyses. The analyses showed an increasing construction of writing as a multimodal and technology-mediated activity, feedback as a dynamic pedagogical practice, and linguistic structures as a window into L2 writing development. Initialisms that may contribute to essentialist discourses, such as “ESL” (English as a second language) and “NNSs” (non-native speakers), were found to be declining in use. Building on these broader trends, the second phase focused on the strong collocates of “writer(s).” Of these collocates, the ones most increasing or decreasing in use with the node word were identified and also examined through concordance and further qualitative analyses. The findings indicate a gradual shift from fixed to fluid framings of L2 writers. This study concludes with implications for conducting historical inquiries into SLW and understanding the representations of L2 writers.