Doina Lecca

Department of Education,Concordia University, Montreal

Using WORLD and FACE to Assess the Level of Literacy in L2 Writing

The present research project proposes a new instrument for assessing the degree of literacy in the L2 academic writing of new immigrants, currently enrolled in Concordia University programs. In spite of their excellent command of L1 writing, and a previous undergraduate and even a graduate degree, they are struggling to reach an acceptable level of authority in English.

We started from two basic assumptions: 1. The students’ progress in L2 writing is linked to the process of their socio-cultural integration; 2. Cultures could be defined in terms of world and face—the key concepts of the systemic model we propose.

Applying the pragmatic acts of the model (e.g. world threatening, world redressing, face threatening, face redressing, model change) to writing samples and answers to questionnaires, has led us to assessing the subjects’ writing performance in correlation with their conflict-cooperation perception of the L2 culture.

The proposed conceptual framework has enabled us to explore the literacy process beyond its linguistic boundaries—an area that remains insufficiently investigated — that necessarily precedes the writing process. Accordingly, this framework provides the impetus for us to redefine the concept of authority in L2 writing in terms of world and face.