Wajnryb (2003) described genre as d

Wajnryb (2003) described genre as declarative knowledge of narrative forms. L2 learners must be able to recognize story conventions in their new language; otherwise, stories may be misinterpreted and misunder- stood (see also Ko, Schallert, & Walters, 2003; Weist, 2004). L2 learners who do not understand the forms, meanings, and uses of story may respond to a job interviewer who asks, ‘Tell me about yourself’ with the formulaic chunk, ‘I was born. . . .’ Narrative structures are not static across cultures, and if ESL learners are to succeed in Canadian society, they need to gain awareness of conventions used in particular contexts (e.g., the workplace). Then, they will need to turn their declarative knowl- edge into procedural knowledge as they learn to write and tell their own stories within typical L2 narrative structures (Wajnryb, 2003). To accom- plish this, extensive practice is required (Jones, 2001; Kiernan, 2005; Ko et al., 2003; Willis & Willis, 2007). Knowledge of story genre will serve learners well both in and outside the classroom.