Matt Kessler
The Linguistics Colloquium series presents Ohio University alum Matt Kessler discussing “What you know, how you use it, and why: A longitudinal study of L2 writers’ metacognitive genre development” on Friday, Feb. 7. from 12:55 to 1:55 p.m. in Gordy 301.
Kessler is a Ph.D. student and teaching and research assistant in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University. He received an M.A. in Applied Linguistics in 2013 and a B.A. in English in 2010 from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University.
Abstract: Since the term ‘genre’ first appeared in the second language (L2) literature in the early 1980s, the concept has played a critical role in the exploration of L2 learners’ literacy, writing, and linguistic development (Paltridge, 2014). Despite the insights researchers have gained into the construction of various genres and how teachers may effectively integrate them into the classroom, Polio (2017) has noted there is a dearth of research examining how learners’ genre knowledge develops over time; specifically, most studies involving L2 writing development typically have relied on timed argumentative writing, which may bear little resemblance to the texts/genres produced in everyday academic or professional contexts. In order to expand our understanding of the development of learners’ genre knowledge, this colloquium reports on an on-going study involving a cohort of L2 English learners as they learn to write a professional legal genre over the course of a 15-week semester. The study adopts a theory of metacognition (Flavell, 1979; Schraw & Dennsion, 1994) from the field of educational psychology, and L2 learners’ development is reported in terms of changes in learners’ metacognitive genre awareness. Implications for future research and pedagogy will be discussed.
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