From genre awareness to cross-genre awareness: A study in an EFL context

Abstract

This study aims to capture both how the participants' genre awareness becomes embedded in their stances through genre-based writing instruction in an EFL context and also how viable multi-genre portfolio use is in genre-based EFL writing instruction. The qualitative data were gathered from several sources: (1) the participants' annotations of their writing, (2) interviews, and (3) pre- and post-instruction interviews and open-ended questions. The findings indicate that besides having a genre awareness and recontextualizing their genre awareness in each new writing, some of the participants were observed to use certain generic features belonging to a genre while being engaged in another genre. This bridge-building between genres through transferring their skills of recontextualization refers to cross-genre awareness. Also, the participants' positive remarks gradually increased through the instruction, which signals the benefits of practicing genres and reflecting on their own performances in annotations. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.