From notes to writing: three students in focus

Abstract

Taking notes while listening not only aids comprehension and concentration in the moment but also creates an external storage repository of information for later use. As the number of students taking content courses in their L2 in English medium instruction contexts grows, L2 notetaking abilities are beginning to receive much-needed pedagogic and research attention. Students use their notes for a variety of post-listening activities, one of which is writing assignments. The present paper examines the relationship between notes taken by three L2 English students while listening to an academic English text, and writing tasks based on the notes taken. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the written tasks are presented and discussed in light of note content, providing insights as to how notes are used to generate post-listening writing tasks. Pedagogic implications related to the note-writing task relationship stemming from the findings are presented.