TITLE:
Investigating EFL Test-Takers’ Engagement with Source Materials in Reading-to-Write: Evidence from Eye-Tracking
AUTHORS:
Pucheng Wang
KEYWORDS:
EFL Writing, Reading-to-Write Tasks, Source Materials, Eye-Tracking, Careful Reading, Expeditious Reading
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.4,
April
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: This study investigated how English
as Foreign Language (EFL) test-takers were engaged with source materials while completing a reading-to-write task. 16 participants were eye-tracked throughout task
completion. Two eye-tracking metrics were examined: total visit
duration, which reports how long the participants looked at each part of the
task; and individual visit duration, which calculates statistics such as the
mean visit duration and max visit duration of the participants’ overall
individual visits. Results showed that the participants spent over a quarter of
their time in reading whilst reading-to-write. During task completion, they
constantly switched their attention between reading source materials and
writing, and they tended to adopt a more expeditious reading approach when
engaging with the source text.