EFL undergraduate students’ thinking and awareness in genre-based writing: Conceptualizing rhetorical moves and experimenting with linguistic knowledge

Abstract

In genre-based writing classes, students’ understanding and application of genre concepts vary based on their backgrounds and contexts. However, the thought processes underlying students’ genre-based writing remain understudied, particularly in undergraduate English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) classes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings. To address this gap, this ethnographic case study explores students’ thinking and awareness during genre-based academic essay writing in EGAP classes I taught at a university in Japan. Data were collected from students’ genre analysis of a sample text, drafts, annotated revised essays, written reflections, and recordings of writing conferences. The analysis reveals shifts in students’ reading stances during genre analysis, and their simplistic conceptualizations of perceived genre characteristics (e.g., rhetorical moves) and their experimentations with L2 linguistic knowledge based on rhetorical considerations (e.g., to express own thoughts in the text) during text construction. These findings highlight students’ evolving genre knowledge, genre and language needs, and potential for learning, as well as gaps in my genre-based teaching. Informed by critical reflection on my teaching practices, pedagogical implications emphasize the importance of promptly eliciting and addressing students’ emerging needs during text construction through explicit guidance and metacognitive scaffolding.