The Meaning of Writing in English: Focusing on Writers’ Felt Sense more

Fri, Apr 29, 09:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul

This study explored the felt sense, unspeakable senses, of EFL writers through their experience of writing in English using the following research questions: What felt sense do EFL writers express? What does writing in English mean for these writers? This study adopted the TAE (Thinking at the edge) approach to examine the emotions related to writing in English for three Japanese EFL learners. Data from the participants’ ten TAE worksheets following the seven phases of the TAE process (Tokumaru, 2011) and individual interviews were collected. The findings indicated that participants struggled to clarify their ideas due to the differences in expressions between Japanese and English. They also had difficulty organizing their thoughts into paragraphs, which negatively affected their confidence in using English. However, they revealed that their sustained efforts to write using L2 highlighted the importance of developing their writing proficiency and building their sense of achievement regarding writing in English. This presentation provides a discussion on teaching writing based on writers’ felt sense of English writing.