Writing as developmental learning in L2 contexts: An interpretive case study using constructivist and register theory

Abstract

Background: Writing development in higher education requires both linguistic control and cognitive engagement. Register theory and constructivist pedagogy provide a framework for evaluating how students use language to persuade, reason, and reflect ethically in academic contexts. Objectives: To investigate how genre-based assessment and constructivist reflection in argumentative writing enhance developmental learning and rhetorical awareness among second-language university students. Method: Twenty-seven essays and 23 reflections were analysed. Essays were scored using register dimensions of field, tenor, and mode, while reflections were thematically coded for indicators of developmental learning. Results: Students wrote argumentative essays on artificial intelligence in education. Their control of tenor and mode was evident in persuasive organisation, while field scores reflected moderate lexical precision shaped by engagement with the theme. Reflections revealed metacognitive growth and ethical awareness, showing that students were both writing to learn and learning to write. Conclusion: Students demonstrated consistent control of tenor and mode, moderate lexical precision, and growth in metacognitive and ethical awareness. The combined rubric and thematic coding offered a multidimensional view of writing performance and progression. Contribution: The study responds to calls for integrated register- and genre-based approaches, proposing a methodology that connects text-based features of content knowledge with metacognition, thereby contributing new insights to applied linguistics on writing as learning.