Task-related collaborative behaviours in task-based oral peer interactions

Abstract

Collaboration in peer interaction has been investigated extensively by analysing language-related episodes (LREs). These have been classified variously depending on the nature of the discourse. Most studies of collaboration in peer interaction have thus tended to adopt a predetermined framework for analysis. Meanwhile, task type as a mediating factor has been widely examined by identifying and quantifying LREs. This study, drawing on sociocultural theory, explores this area by taking an ‘emic’ approach, focusing on a bottom-up analysis of collaborative behaviours in task-based EFL peer interactions. The participants were 15 adult learners of a state university in Turkey. Their EFL proficiency level was judged to be B1+ (intermediate) and their ages ranged between 18 and 20. They were randomly assigned to 3 peer groups and completed 8 different speaking tasks orally, involving 4 convergent and 4 divergent tasks.The qualitative analysis of this data identifies 5 categories of task-related collaborative behaviours; namely, (1) pooling knowledge/ideas, (2) encouragement for participation, (3) task policing, (4) simplification of the task and (5) language policing, in both types of tasks. The results are discussed in relation to social interdependence theory and learner autonomy in self-directed learning, and possible explanations for observing such collaboration are also provided.