Page 159 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

143 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

The role of beliefs in writing

A belief is a proposition “which may be consciously or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is
accepted as true by the individual and, is therefore imbued with emotive commitment” (Borg, 2001,
p.186). Beliefs serve to filter new information and experience. They fundamentally affect perception
which in turn will validate expectations derived from different life experiences. In most human acti-
vities, beliefs play an important role in determining how we approach the activity, the goals we set
ourselves and the values we assign to specific outcomes. This is also true for writing in academic
and professional contexts, where we can divide systems of beliefs into those which are related to
language and language use, those which are specifically associated to writing and written practices
and those which are related to feedback and evaluative issues (Sanders-Reio et al., 2014). In terms
of beliefs about language which influence the way we write we can mention our beliefs with regard
to whether language encodes our experience and meaning, in opposition to beliefs that language is
merely an index of our thoughts and message which we always be reinterpreted through the frame
of the reader/listener. Associated beliefs revolve around viewing language as a finite set of resources
versus the belief that language is infinitely variable.

It is difficult to separate our beliefs about language from the subset of beliefs which is more specifica-
lly related to written practices, however, some areas of interest would be the belief that writing is the
process of putting graphic symbols into an order to convey a message, versus the belief that writing
is primarily about using strategies to evoke a specific reaction in the reader. Other related beliefs
about writing are associated to how natural or normal we consider the activity of writing; for some
writing is a normal part of everyday life, while for others it is a specialized activity, reserved for a few
experts. We may also differ in terms of how solitary or effortful we may believe writing should be, in
contrast to others who may see writing as a shared or communal experience.

Beliefs related to the evaluation and feedback issues in written practices also vary among individuals
in terms of when writers expect to be evaluated and how kind or harsh they expect the feedback
to be. There may be contrasting beliefs with regard to whom could be expected to evaluate one’s
writing and some variation could be expected in how the response of different hierarchical levels of
evaluator are accepted or not accepted in terms of our own beliefs about our own position in the
hierarchy. There are related beliefs in terms of how the writer expects to react to feedback and how
closely the writer feels that the reviewer’s suggestions should be followed. Writers (and reviewers)
also vary with regard to whether they see feedback as an encouragement to consolidate writing or
whether they feel it to be judgmental or arbitrary. All these beliefs may also vary in terms of the phase
of writing which is being evaluated; that is, whether it is a draft version or a final manuscript (Hyland
& Hyland, 2006).