Building genre knowledge in second language writers during study abroad in higher education

Few studies have examined how second language (L2) students build new genre knowledge in the process of participating in L2 rhetorical situations during study abroad. The current study examines how L2 students utilize their prior genre knowledge and construct new L2 genre knowledge during study abroad. This study adopted the Rhetorical Genre Studies perspective, which argues that recurrent social situations influence people in carrying out rhetorical actions. The participants were four South Korean students enrolled in a US university as exchange students. Data included twelve semi-structured individual interview transcripts and participants' assignments written during study abroad. Findings indicated that during study abroad, participants utilized their prior process genre knowledge and discipline-specific content genre knowledge acquired at their home universities for completing L2 writing assignments. Participants' comments also pointed to the building of new L2 genre knowledge by being exposed to new yet somewhat familiar rhetorical situations and producing various academic genres, such as research reports, in the L2 during study abroad. This study highlights that L2 study abroad students should be considered as boundary crossers across languages and across writing tasks, that is, students who actively repurpose prior genre knowledge and build new genre knowledge in negotiating L2 rhetorical situations.