What is L2 Writing

This study explored L2 learners' stances towards their genre-specific knowledge, their orientation to process-genre writing instruction in higher education, and their recontextualization process in learning a variety of genres. Providing a specific emphasis on the complementary role of their genre awareness and knowledge, a researcher-developed survey and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit data from 32 first year pre-service English language teachers. The findings showed that L2 learners reported having no prior writing experience in their L1 and L2. Their reported challenges in forming the rhetorical structure, organization, and content of a genre were linked to their lack of genre awareness and knowledge about the properties of a genre. L2 learners also reported transferring formal organizational patterns of essays, despite having difficulties in recognizing cross-genre regularities. Based on these findings, pedagogical insights are offered to improve the practices of L2 process-genre writing instruction.