Cover not available
Article published In:
Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報)
Vol. 55:2 (2020) ► pp.133–169

Peer-interaction patterns in a Chinese as a foreign language pair writing task

A conversation analytical perspective

| The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Research on peer interaction patterns over the past three decades has provided insights regarding how relationships formed among peers can influence task performance. Six pairs of intermediate Chinese learners participating in a collaborative writing task were recruited, and their pair-interaction patterns were investigated for detailed evidence of how such patterns were constructed through their co-participation measured by two indices proposed by Storch (2002a), equality and mutuality. Furthermore, taking a Conversation Analytical (CA) perspective, this study also examined the fine-grained detail of several interactional practices displaying participants’ orientation to the peer relationship. This revealed that each pair displayed a distinctive interaction pattern that was constructed through diverse participatory practices which are contingent upon the ongoing interaction as it unfolds. The findings shed new light into analyzing pair interactions in collaborative writing from a CA perspective in CFL settings and have important implications for studying interaction patterns and implementing collaborative writing tasks.
Keywords: peer interaction, collaborative writing, conversation analysis, Chinese as a foreign language
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • Benefits of collaborative writing
    • Analysis of peer interaction pattern
  • Methods
    • Participants
    • Materials and procedures
    • Data coding and analysis
  • Results
    • Research question 1: How differently are interaction patterns exhibited by dyads in terms of equality and mutuality?
    • Research question 2: How are low/high equality and mutuality constructed through peer interactions?
      • High equality
      • Low equality
      • High mutuality
      • Low mutuality
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.19008.zha
References
Bejarano, Y., Levine, T., Olshtain, E., & Steiner, J.
(1997) The skilled use of interaction strategies: Creating a framework for improved small-group communicative interaction in the language classroom. System, 25(2), 203–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruffee, K. A.
(1984) Collaborative learning and the “conversation of mankind”. College English, 46(7), 635–652. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E.
(2009) A sequential approach to affect: The case of ‘disappointment’. In M. Haakana, M. Laakso, & J. Lindström (Eds.), Talk in interaction – comparative dimensions (pp. 94–123). Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E., & Selting, M.
(2018) Interactional linguistics: Studying language in social interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, W. J., McDonough, K., & Brun-Mercer, N.
(2019) Identifying linguistic markers of collaboration in second language peer interaction: A lexico-grammatical approach. TESOL Quarterly, 53(1), 180–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damon, W., & Phelps, E.
(1989) Critical distinctions among three approaches to peer education. International Journal of Educational Research, 13(1), 9–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DiNitto, R.
(2000) Can collaboration be unsuccessful? A sociocultural analysis of classroom setting and Japanese L2 performance in group tasks. The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, 34(2), 179–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Donato, R.
(1988) Beyond group: A psycholinguistic rationale for collective activity in second-language learning (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Delaware, Newark.Google Scholar
(1994) Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In J. P. Lantolf & G. Appel (Eds.), Vygotskian approaches to second language research (pp. 33–56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
(2000) Sociocultural contributions to understanding the foreign and second language classroom. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 27–50). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ede, L., & Lunsford, Andrea A.
(1992) Singular texts/plural authors : Perspectives on collaborative writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Edstrom, A.
(2015) Triads in the L2 classroom: Interaction patterns and engagement during a collaborative task. System, 521, 26–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Dobao, A.
(2012) Collaborative dialogue in learner-learner and learner-native speaker interaction. Applied Linguistics, 33(3), 229–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J.
(2002)  Oh-prefaced responses to assessments: A method of modifying agreement/disagreement.” In Ford, C. E., Fox, B. A., & Thompson, S. A. (Eds.), The Language of Turn and Sequence (pp. 196–224). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jin, L.
(2014) Peer/group interaction in a Mandarin Chinese study abroad context. In Han, Z. (Ed.), Studies in second language acquisition of Chinese (Vol. 771) (pp. 57–79). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y., & McDonough, K.
(2008) The effect of interlocutor proficiency on the collaborative dialogue between Korean as a second language learners. Language Teaching Research, 12(2), 211–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kunitz, S.
(2018) Collaborative attention work on gender agreement in Italian as a foreign language. The Modern Language Journal, 1021, 64–81. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lapkin, S., & Swain, M.
(2013) Focus on form through collaborative dialogue: Exploring task effects. In Researching pedagogic tasks (pp. 109–128). Routledge.Google Scholar
Li, M., & Zhu, W.
(2017) Good or bad collaborative wiki writing: Exploring links between group interactions and writing products. Journal of Second Language Writing, 351, 38–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Y., Yao, D., Ge, L., Bi, N. P., & Shi, Y.
(2018) Integrated Chinese: Workbook 3 (4th ed.). Cheng & Tsui Company.Google Scholar
Lockhart, C., & Ng, P.
(1995) Analyzing talk in ESL peer response groups: Stances, functions, and content. Language Learning, 45(4), 605–651. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Long, M. H.
(1983) Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 126–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1996) The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In Ritchie, W. C., & Bahtia, T. K. (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413–468). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lyster, R., & Ranta, L.
(1997) Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19(1), 37–66. [URL]
Mackey, A., & Goo, J.
(2007) Interaction research in SLA: A meta-analysis and research synthesis. In Mackey, A. (Ed.), Conversational interaction in second language acquisition (pp. 407–452). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Malmqvist, A.
(2005) How does group discussion in reconstruction tasks affect written language output?. Language Awareness, 14(2–3), 128–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nakatani, Y.
(2010) Identifying strategies that facilitate EFL learners’ oral communication: A classroom study using multiple data collection procedures. The Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 116–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naughton, D.
(2006) Cooperative strategy training and oral interaction: Enhancing small group communication in the language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 169–184. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oxford, R. L.
(1997) Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and interaction: Three communicative strands in the language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 443–456. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poupore, G.
(2016) Measuring group work dynamics and its relation with L2 learners’ task motivation and language production. Language Teaching Research, 20(6), 719–740. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G.
(1974) A simple systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 531, 361–382.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.
(1987) Between macro and micro: Contexts and other connections. In J. Alexander, B. Giesen, R. Munch, & N. Smelser (Eds.), The micro-macro link (pp. 207–234). Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Storch, N.
(2001) An investigation into the nature of pair work in an ESL classroom and its effect on grammatical development (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Melbourne, Melbourne.Google Scholar
(2002a) Patterns of interaction in ESL pair work. Language learning, 52(1), 119–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002b) Relationships formed in dyadic interaction and opportunity for learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 37(3–4), 305–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) Using activity theory to explain differences in patterns of dyadic interactions in an ESL class. Canadian Modern Language Review, 60(4), 457–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) Collaborative Writing in L2 Contexts: Processes, Outcomes, and Future Directions. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 311, 275–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) Collaborative writing in L2 classrooms (Vol. 311). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Storch, N., & Wigglesworth, G.
(2007) Writing tasks: The effects of collaboration. In García Mayo, M. (Ed.). Investigating tasks in formal language learning (pp. 157–177). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Swain, M.
(1985) Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. Input in Second Language Acquisition, 151, 165–179.Google Scholar
(1998) Focus on form through conscious reflection. In Doughty, C., & Williams, Jessica. (Eds.). Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 64–81). Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S.
(1995) Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 16(3), 371–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998) Interaction and second language learning: Two adolescent French immersion students working together. The Modern Language Journal, 82(3), 320–337. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tan, L. L., Wigglesworth, G., & Storch, N.
(2010) Pair interactions and mode of communication. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 33(3), 27–1. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thorne, S. L., & Hellermann, J.
(2015) Sociocultural approaches to expert-novice relationships in second language interaction. In N. Markee (Ed.), The handbook of classroom discourse and interaction (pp. 281–298). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L.
(1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Walls, L. C.
(2018) The effect of dyad type on collaboration: Interactions among heritage and second language learners. Foreign Language Annals, 511, 638–657. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, Y., & Swain, M.
(2007) Effects of proficiency differences and patterns of pair interaction on second language learning: Collaborative dialogue between adult ESL learners. Language Teaching Research, 11(2), 121–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wigglesworth, G., & Storch, N.
(2009) Pair versus individual writing: Effects on fluency, complexity and accuracy. Language Testing, 26(3), 445–466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wu, R., & Heritage, J.
(2017) Particles and epistemics: Convergences and divergences between English and Mandarin. In Raymond, G., Lerner, G., & Heritage, J. (Eds.), Enabling human conduct: Studies of talk-in-interaction in honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff, pp. 273–297. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, M.
(2019) Towards a quantitative model of understanding the dynamics of collaboration in collaborative writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 451, 16–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Wang, Cong, Sida Zhu & Haijing Zhang
2023. Interaction between CSL students’ motivation and anxiety under different L2 writing tasks: evidence from Vietnamese university students. Frontiers in Psychology 14 DOI logo
Yang, Li & Lini Ge Polin
2023. Exploring the learning benefits of collaborative writing in L2 Chinese: a product-oriented perspective. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 0:0 DOI logo
Zhu, Junling
2023. Critical Literature Review on Teaching Chinese as a World Language in the Context of Globalization. Language and Sociocultural Theory 9:2 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.