Improving students’ source integration skills: Does a focus on reading comprehension and vocabulary development work?

Previous research has explored the reasons for the overreliance on patchwriting in L2 writing. Fewer studies have examined pedagogical interventions designed to help these writers improve source integration skills, and these studies have mainly focused on teaching citation and/or paraphrasing skills. There is no research examining whether improving students’ accurate understanding of the source text and the vocabulary needed to discuss the ideas lead to fewer instances of patchwriting. The current study examined this issue in a quasi-experimental study. Sixty students in three experimental and one control group and their instructors participated in the study. Following a language use test, instructors focused on developing students’ accurate understanding of source information and the language needed to discuss the ideas. Results from an ANCOVA with language use scores as the covariate revealed that essays in the Experimental Group 3 received significantly higher source use scores on the source-based final exam. Further analysis showed statistically significant correlations between source use scores on the final exam and a lower percentage of source use and a smaller number of source use instances. In interviews, students characterized the intervention as useful but also time-consuming. Implications of the results will be discussed.