Juliana Shak, University of Oxford
Engaging young ESL learners in collaborative dialogues
One recent line of research, framed within the sociocultural paradigm, has demonstrated
the role of collaborative dialogue in mediating higher cognitive functions when learners engage in
interactions during communicative tasks. Yet in classroom situations where learners are interacting
with their peers of similar levels of second language (L2) proficiency, it is difficult to see how such
interactions can mediate joint problem-solving or construction of knowledge, particularly amongst
young learners with limited L2 linguistic resources. This study addressed the issue of language
knowledge by providing sixty Year 5 participants (age 10) from six primary schools in Brunei
Darussalam with written linguistic assistance before they performed collaborative writing tasks.
Specifically, the study compared the dialogic performance of two groups of learners working in
dyads: one group (N=30) received written linguistic assistance at word level, and the other group
(N=30) received written linguistic assistance at text (paragraphs of text) level. The following research
questions were investigated: (i) how often do these young ESL learners reflect on story content and
language features when performing a collaborative writing task?; and (ii) are there differences in the
quantity and quality of interaction between learners who receive different levels of linguistic
assistance? All participants were paired according to their gender and L2 English proficiency, and
they completed eight writing tasks over a period of eight weeks. Transcriptions of their audiorecorded conversations served as the basis of analysis and were coded for content- and languagerelated episodes.
Keywords: collaborative dialogue; interaction; young learners; linguistic assistance