ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a theoretical background by discussing different frameworks relevant for understanding the role of sourcing in discourse comprehension. It reviews empirical work on students' sourcing skills and the role of individual and contextual factors in sourcing and discusses the nature and particular challenges of sourcing in digital contexts and review research on sourcing in such contexts. The chapter analyses intervention work aiming to improve students' consideration and evaluation of source features when dealing with multiple documents and also reviews measures used to assess sourcing skills in the research literature. Developmental psychology research on social cognition has provided evidence on the antecedent foundations of sourcing. The findings from correlational research are consistent with theoretical frameworks such as the documents model framework and the Multiple-Document Task-based Relevance Assessment and Content Extraction model, suggesting that sourcing plays an important role in the construction of integrated, accurate mental representations of controversial issues.
