ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of reading in integrated writing, based on the findings of the eye-tracking analysis. It explores the role language proficiency plays in integrated writing from eye-tracking analyses. Eye-tracking studies in second language research are increasingly common. The eye-tracking results from the first ten minutes suggest that the test-takers’ writing proficiency, as measured in the Aptis writing scores, could predict whether the test-takers were upper- or lower-intermediate students. Integrated writing tasks, which combine writing with other skills, are beoming more common for assessing the proficiency of second language learners, on the premise that integrated writing provides an accurate picture of how a student would perform in a real-life academic writing assignment. In exploring the roles of language proficiency in integrated writing, the present study used eye tracking to explore any differences in cognitive operations between the test-takers at the upper-intermediate and lower-intermediate levels during integrated writing.
