Although foreign language instruction in mixed-age (M-A) is gaining
popularity (Heizmann and Ries and Wicki 2015; Lau and Juby-Smith and Desbiens, 2017; Shahid Kazi and Moghal and Aziz 2018; Thurn 2011), the research is
scarce. Drawing from multiple data sources, this study investigated to what extent
do peer interactions among M-A and same-age (S-A) pairs aid L2 development and
how students perceive their interactions. In this study, the same learners (N=24)
aged between 10 and 12 interacted with the same and different age partners during common classroom lessons in two EFL classrooms. The results suggest that
both S-A and M-A peer interactions aided L2 development. Although S-A pairs
outperformed M-A pairs on the post-test, the results are not statistically significant. The analysis of students’ perceptions revealed that the majority of students
prefer working in S-A to M-A pairs. In addition to age/proficiency differences,
factors such as students’ relationships and perceptions of one’s own and partner’s proficiency greatly impact how they interact with one another.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:92129 |
| Date | 19 June 2024 |
| Creators | Kos, Tomas |
| Publisher | de Gruyter |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 2192-9521, 2192-953X, 10.1515/eujal-2020-0001 |
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