Biliteracy in context: the use of L1/L2 genre knowledge in graduate studies

Abstract

This article draws on genre theory in a biliteracy context to analyze how one US–Mexico border-crossing graduate student used her genre knowledge and meta-knowledge in her first language, Spanish, as a resource for navigating disciplinary-based genres in her second language, English. The student's strategic use of her L1 genre meta-knowledge from non-university contexts to realize academic literacy tasks in her L2 represented a form of recontextualization, where meanings move and get re-shaped across contexts. This strategic negotiation, in turn, served to disrupt the notions of ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ that are prominent in the composition studies literature on second language writers, where students are seen to be moving on a linear trajectory from novice to expert status in academic writing. The article discusses implications for genre-based research and pedagogy for multilingual learners crossing linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries in their academic studies.

Keywords:

• genre
• biliteracy
• academic literacy
• second language writing
• recontextualization

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my appreciation to Diana for her participation in this study. I would also like to thank the special issue editors, Juan Guerra and Maria de la Piedra, for their valuable feedback and guidance in the article preparation process.