Genre learning from the EAP class to undergraduate research symposiums

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses have provided undergraduate students with a supporting structure for their research. After leaving these courses, students may write their senior theses or write for research journals or research symposiums. What genre knowledge and writing expertise will they gain through these activities and how? This paper examines the genre learning of a group of Chinese university students as they participated in three undergraduate research symposiums (URSs). The study reveals that they furthered genre knowledge across five domains—subject matter knowledge, formal genre knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, process knowledge, and genre awareness. They achieved these gains as they searched for appropriate research questions and analytical models, annotated and modelled Chinese research articles, experimented with new genre forms critically across lingua-cultural differences, negotiated with non-disciplinary raters and shifting rating criteria of the URSs, and managed their affect productively. Given the affordances of URSs, we conclude the study by suggesting ways to strengthen the ties between the EAP curriculum and URSs.