This study aimed to analyse organised interaction and assigned discussions occurring between students in EFL classrooms. It was conducted in order to identify the value-added in terms of learning by using discussion groups. Secondly, this study aimed to analyse how the contribution of models and approaches from pragmatics and discourse analysis can explain what is occurring during such conversations. Lastly, the structural and linguistic similarities and differences between teacher-to-student and student-to-student talk were also discussed. These questions were answered by examining four groups enrolled in English 6 in an upper secondary school located in the south part of Sweden. The qualitative data was collected through recordings from the students' discussions when they participated in a group speaking task as a part of the module of surveillance. The analysis of the data was conducted with the help of some of the aspects of conversation analysis. The results showed that not all of the participants in the group discussions sufficiently benefitted from the speaking task since, in most of the group, the need for the teacher's support was crucial in order for the students to use the target language and develop their speaking skills. In terms of the Speech Act Theory, the illocutionary acts identified in the conversations between students were that of the directive and assertive illocutionary acts used to pass the speaking turn to the other participants or to demonstrate agreement with the views of the previous turn. The conversational exchange was initiated by an opening framing move, followed by a response, but lacked follow-up moves in the form of feedback. Finally, there were some similarities and differences between teacher-to-student and student-to-student talk. The results showed that even if some of the students appeared to adapt to the role of the facilitator, they were not able to do so due to lack of knowledge to sufficiently support all the participants in order to be more active during the conversations and use the target language during the speaking task.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-45089 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Maziani, Anastasia |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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