Exploring Multilingual Genre Knowledge in a College First-Year Writing (FYW) Course

Abstract

Learning to write at universities requires learning to write across diverse genres. For the growing number of multilingual students in higher education, learning to write across academic genres also requires learning to write across languages, as they may be familiar with genres in their home language but not in English. Although there is theoretical support for instruction facilitating the process of learning new genres across languages, few studies have offered empirical insight into such instruction. To bridge the gap, this classroom-based study explores how multilingual writers apply their genre knowledge in the process of writing across both genres and languages. The study examines the learning potential of English as an additional language (EAL) writing instruction that engages students in writing across languages and genres at a US university, which aims to enhance students’ multilingual genre knowledge development. Multiple data sources are collected, such as students’ screen recordings and video-based interviews. Data are analyzed through iterative thematic coding (Braun & Clarke, 2012) and informed by theories of genre and writing development (e.g., Tardy et al., 2020). Findings of this study contribute to a theoretical understanding of multilingual genre knowledge and offer pedagogical implications for writing instructors on the potential affordances and challenges in implementing an assignment of cross-genre, cross-language writing as described in this study.