Chapter 5. Learning to write in a second language

This chapter reports on empirical research intended to gauge the type, extent, and source of genre knowledge of international students newly arrived at an English medium university and to trace these students’ reliance on and evolving assumptions about those genres and about the constraints and affordances of the novel genres they face. Data for the study came from surveys and text-based interviews. Results suggest that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students have experience with and understanding of a wide range of genres in English and are able to adapt to new genre demands flexibly. Key issues include how and what knowledge is transferred, or not, to these new settings and how learning to write intersects with writing to learn.