Comprehending, envisioning and practicing: The mediating effects of EFL university students’ future L2 writing selves on the relationship between academic writing beliefs and task engagement

Abstract

Academic writing beliefs are conceptualised as writers’ task perceptions that may shape their aspired future competence and influence their engagement patterns. However, there is a dearth of research validating this comprehending, envisioning and practicing process especially among novice learners of academic writing. Through structural equation modelling (SEM), the present study explored the relationship between academic writing beliefs and task engagement mediated by future L2 writing selves. A survey was administered to 508 Chinese non-English-major undergraduates enrolled in academic English courses from four universities in mainland China. The results showed that beliefs of academic writing as autonomous idea transaction best predicted behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement, and beliefs of authoritative source transmission in writing fostered social and agentic engagement the most. While ought-to L2 writing self had no mediating effect, ideal L2 writing self significantly mediated the positive influence of transactional beliefs on all aspects of task engagement, which implied that the motivational power of learners’ desired future self-image as academic writers originated from their sense of writing autonomy and authorial idea development. Pedagogical implications of university academic English writing instruction were proposed.