Group Cohesion and Learning Opportunities in Peer Interaction

Abstract

The present study investigates peer to peer oral interaction in two task based English as a foreign language classrooms, one of which was a self-declared cohesive group, and the other a self-declared less cohesive group. The objective of the study was to invest igate how learning opportunities were talked into being through peer to peer interactions in these two groups and to determine how the cohesive or less cohesive nature of the class influenced the number of learning opportunities in peer interaction. The study was,classroom- based and was carried out over the period of an academic year. Research was framed within a sociocognitive perspective of language learning and data was collected from (questionnaires and audio recorded talk of dyads, triads and groups of four students completing a total of eight oral tasks. Using conversation analysis, these audio recordings were transcribed and analysed quantitatively for learning opportunities and qualitatively for interactions which encouraged a positive social dimension and which may have led to the creation of learning opportunities. Analysis of interactions revealed the many ways in which learners in both the cohesive and less cohesive class created learning opportunities. Further qualitative, analysis of these interactions showed how the affective relationship between participants influenced the number of learning opportunities created.