Fostering metacognitive genre awareness in L2 academic reading and writing: A case study of pre-service English teachers

Although the concept of metacognition has received considerable attention for its impact on learning across disciplinary areas, it has not been sufficiently discussed in the context of L2 academic reading and writing. In this paper, we bring together two theoretical frameworks, genre analysis and metacognition theory, and discuss the concept of metacognitive genre awareness. Drawing on the analysis of the data collected from a group of pre-service English teachers at a major Swedish university, we examine the process of building this awareness within ESP genre-based academic reading and writing instruction and show how it influences L2 students’ ability to interpret and compose academic texts. It was found that all study participants developed declarative (what) and procedural (how) metacognitive knowledge of genre-relevant aspects of academic texts, but only a few demonstrated conditional (when and why) knowledge of the genre in their reading analyses and writing assignments. It is concluded that using a metacognition framework to study L2 academic writing provides us with new insights and practical applications for L2 instruction.

► Metacognition theory provides a useful framework for analyzing genre awareness in academic writing.
► A genre-based approach helps L2 students develop metacognitive knowledge of genre-relevant aspects of academic communication.
► L2 learners must develop an ability to apply metacognitive knowledge of genre-relevant concepts to the communicative context (conditional awareness).
► There are differences in the type of generic features that students have awareness of, and in the degree in which they interpret the relevance of these features.
► Metacognitive genre awareness transfers into deliberate writing choices: only a few demonstrated conditional (when and why) knowledge of the genre.