Implicit intertextuality: making the invisible visible to L2 feature story writers in the ESL classroom

Abstract

The paper examines the intertextual strategies used by a class of L2 learners who were required to submit a feature story of 2500 words as their assignment during the final year of their undergraduate study. A mixed-method approach consisting of textual analysis and interviews was used to examine these Language & Communication Major students’ use of intertextuality in their writing. Findings reveal that high-ability student texts demonstrated both overt intertextuality in the form of quotations and paraphrased ideas as well as covert or implicit intertextuality through allusion to other texts, which effectively evoked latent meanings related to wider discourses on the topic. In contrast, medium- and low-ability students mostly relied on overt intertextuality, and when instances of covert intertextuality were found in their texts, these resources did not contribute to the overall communicative purpose of the text. Thus, high-ability students’ writing was different in that it made use of implicit intertextual resources intentionally and thus more successfully than medium- and low-ability students’ texts. An external factor that contributed significantly to high-ability students' writing was their knowledge of global and local issues as well as their familiarity with prevalent socio-political, economic and cultural discourses, and their ability to make meaningful connections between them. These results have implications for refining pedagogical practices for L2 students learning to write feature stories in English. Through a step-by-step, systematic explanation of the intertextual landscape of texts, teachers can empower writers in the ESL classroom with strategic feature writing tools. The more broadly, clearly and accurately students can foresee the intertextual world they can draw upon, the more agency they will have as feature writers in creating authoritative and powerful texts.