A Conversation Analysis of an Online EFL Speaking Class: Learners’ Collaboration in Focus

Holding EFL classes on online platforms has boosted, especially since ۲۰۲۰, with the breakout of COVID-۱۹ pandemic and has become a trend in the current educational settings. Although its effectiveness and promising effects on language learning outcomes have been researched recurrently, little research has been done on online classroom dynamics. Classroom discussion, especially, in the form of free chat, has long been an ideal teaching technique in speaking courses. Free chats has also been used dominantly in online classes to improve students’ collaboration, interaction, and negotiation of meaning. It has been proven that it has constructive potential in online speaking classes but its discourse in online has not been rigorously exploited. This study adopted a conversation analysis approach to examining the collaborative interactions of ۱۲ Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners. The interactions were generated while the learners were doing online collaborative tasks. The research aimed at discovering conversational patterns and strategies the learners used while fulfilling on-line collaborative speaking tasks, and how such tasks ended up in English language learning. The results implied that the learners were engaged in a constructive discourse which seems to reinforce language learning. It was revealed that the structure of interaction between the learners during small group task-based instruction via chatting approximates the open and locally managed organization of ordinary conversation. The analysis also showed that the learners were constructing their discourse with equal power that is thought to result in language learning; that is, without the help of the teacher, the students became involved in their discussion and in their homework, solving their problems. The findings will be of great significance for online or blended speaking classes in terms of triggering appropriate collaborative flow and reconsidering teachers’ roles.

کلیدواژه ها:

collaborative learning ، conversation analysis ، online classes ، speaking instruction