the nature of peer-peer dialogue during collaborative writing: a comparison of iranian and malaysian-chinese learners

The present study purported to comparatively examine the nature of peer-peer dialogue of two iranian (efl) and two malaysian-chinese (esl) dyads during eleven collaborative writing sessions. their pair talks were audio-video-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and subsequently were analyzed at three levels: type of talk, type of activity, and type of episode. the types of talk were sub-segmented into three kinds of talk: on-task talk, about-task talk, and off-task talk. data scrutiny found on-task talk with the biggest and off-task talk with the smallest portion of pair talk among all the dyads. as for the type of activities, the process of collaborative writing was found segmentable into three stages of planning, writing, and revising, although there were instances when this linear three-stage process was flouted and also the time that dyads spent on each activity varied. in terms of the taxonomy of episodes, about-task talk and on-task talk episodes were the same among all the dyads. as for the language related episodes (lres) generated in the course of peer-peer dialogues, despite being identical in terms of the typology, there was a notable contrast between malaysian-chinese and iranian dyads in terms of their frequency. compared to their malaysian counterparts, iranians had a more predominant inclination towards deliberating about the meta-linguistic features of language. the findings could have pedagogic significance and implications for language learning scholars, teachers, and practitioners.

The Nature of Peer-Peer Dialogue During Collaborative Writing: A Comparison of Iranian and Malaysian-Chinese Learners

The present study purported to comparatively examine the nature of peer-peer dialogue of two Iranian (EFL) and two Malaysian-Chinese (ESL) dyads during eleven collaborative writing sessions. Their pair talks were audio-video-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and subsequently were analyzed at three levels: type of talk, type of activity, and type of episode. The types of talk were sub-segmented into three kinds of talk: on-task talk, about-task talk, and off-task talk. Data scrutiny found on-task talk with the biggest and off-task talk with the smallest portion of pair talk among all the dyads. As for the type of activities, the process of collaborative writing was found segmentable into three stages of planning, writing, and revising, although there were instances when this linear three-stage process was flouted and also the time that dyads spent on each activity varied. In terms of the taxonomy of episodes, about-task talk and on-task talk episodes were the same among all the dyads. As for the Language Related Episodes (LREs) generated in the course of peer-peer dialogues, despite being identical in terms of the typology, there was a notable contrast between Malaysian-Chinese and Iranian dyads in terms of their frequency. Compared to their Malaysian counterparts, Iranians had a more predominant inclination towards deliberating about the meta-linguistic features of language. The findings could have pedagogic significance and implications for language learning scholars, teachers, and practitioners.