An Analysis of Students' Dyadic Interaction on a Dictogloss Task.

Using a Vygotskian perspective, this study investigated the possibility of secondary school second language students providing scaffolding for each other's learning during dyadic verbal interaction on a dictogloss task. Participants in the study were 19 English-as-a-Second-Language students from China, Hong Kong, and Korea, who studied at a girl's school in Singapore. The researchers examined the students' exchanges for the presence of discourse strategies that occur in the zone of proximal development. To understand the students' socio-affective responses to collaborative work and the effect of these responses on the quality of their dyadic interaction, data were collected via student journals, questionnaires, and interviews. Findings suggest that the second language students were capable of providing assisted performance, though in many ways that are different from that given by experts to novices in the traditional notion of scaffolding. Further, the socio-affective factors may also play a key role in the success or failure of scaffolding. The implications of this study makes the case for the validity of student-student interaction as a tool for second language learning, while suggesting the need for collaborative skills to be taught and for students to understand the value of cooperation. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/KFT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. .0 An Analysis of Students' Dyadic Interaction on a Dictogloss Task