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This volume presents a comprehensive empirical investigation into the strategic processes activated by Italian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) when composing argumentative essays. Focusing on the critical generating and planning stages of writing, the study explores how learners conceptualise, organise, and articulate argumentative structures across their first language (Italian) and second language (English), addressing product-oriented outcomes and underlying cognitive-linguistic processes. This work examines the interaction between linguistic competence, discursive organisation, pragmatic awareness, and metadiscourse control. Special attention is devoted to the developmental trajectories of argumentative strategies, cross-linguistic differences, and the emergence of metacognitive control in bilingual academic writing. By adopting a cross-linguistic comparative design, the study provides rich insights into the strategic evolution of writing competence. It demonstrates how explicit instruction in genre awareness, discourse planning, and rhetorical modelling fosters formal accuracy and cohesion, and a heightened sensitivity to audience, stance, and academic voice.
