Mapping metacognitive genre awareness with L1 and L2 writers: Investigating novices’ engagement with an occluded genre

This study examines L1 and L2 English-speaking undergraduates’ engagement with an occluded, promotional genre – the personal statement (PS). Using a case study design, the researchers explored the experiences of three novice writers with no prior exposure to PSs, as the students applied to a university-sponsored grants competition that required them to produce the genre. Drawing upon metacognition theory, the researchers investigated (1) students’ metacognitive genre awareness of the PS prior to composing, along with (2) the challenges that students faced when attempting to compose the genre for the first time. Special attention is paid to comparing the similarities/differences among the L1 and L2 writers. Data for the study included semi-structured interviews, multimodal visualizations, and stimulated recalls. The findings show shared areas of metacognitive genre awareness among the case study participants, in addition to multiple differences between L1 and L2 writers. Despite such differences, all students struggled with aspects of procedural knowledge when composing the occluded genre, encountering similar challenges. Implications are discussed for writing researchers and practitioners, including the potential of multimodal visualizations as a tool for tapping into learners’ metacognition and genre awareness.