L2 Postgraduate Students' Argumentative Essay Writing : A Review of Genre-based Studies and Directions for Future Research

This review article evaluates previous studies on L2 postgraduate students' argumentative essay writing in English and provides directions for future research on this issue. In higher education, argumentative essays require students to practice knowledge transformation; L2 postgraduate students must present new perspectives as arguments using evidence from selected literature in their writing. Over the past 10 years, many studies on L2 students' argumentative essay writing have been conducted via genre analysis. These genre-analysis-based studies have focused on L2 postgraduate students' use of genre within their text. Researchers have analysed the contexts, audiences, purposes, and strategies of the L2 students' writing. Other researchers, however, have defined evidence-based argumentative writing as a process in sociocultural contexts; they have proposed in-depth analysis of L2 students' cognitive processes and epistemological growth through the students' argument construction. Based on a framework of argumentative essay writing(Wingate, 2006, 2012)and methods of relevant research(Badenhorst, 2018), the author suggests that studies on L2 postgraduate students' argumentative essay writing should examine the students' engagement in source selection, literature review, and argument construction. Researchers should also explore the L2 students' academic identities and the features of sociocultural mediation that facilitate their writing.