A Sociocognitive Study Of The Features Of Classroom Conversational Negotiations

Using the methodological framework of conversation analysis (CA) as a central tool for analysis, this study investigated the features of conversational negotiations in classroom peer interactions by Chinese EFL learners from the sociocognitive perspective. It was aimed at exploring the classroom learner-learner negotiation from four perspectives:the features of learner-learner negotiation in terms of negotiation moves, negotiation triggers and negotiation output; the causes of negotiation features and effects of learner negotiation on language practice; the nature and the influencing factors of learner negotiated interaction for classroom language learning; and the implications of negotiation features for instructional practice and research.The research data derived from audio-and-video-recorded interactions of twenty groups of English majors engaging in nine teacher-assigned in-class interactive tasks during three consecutive terms. Data analysis focused on3,396negotiation moves collected from nine interactive tasks during three terms. Schemes of transcribing and coding of data were developed from the principles of CA. The interclass correlation coefficient of0.87guaranteed the normalization and unification of transcription and coding as much as possible. The questionnaire and the interviews provided supplementary and complementary information for data analysis.The focus of the conversation analysis was on the relationship between learner-learner negotiation and learning in the process of completing the interactive tasks. The questionnaire responses and the interview data were collected to explore the influencing factors of learner negotiated interaction for classroom language learning.The present study produced a number of important findings. With regard to the developmental features of negotiation moves, the study found that conversational negotiation obviously existed in nine teacher-assigned interactive tasks and the frequency of negotiation moves increased over time and across tasks.In respect of negotiation initiations, five kinds were found to frequently trigger learner negotiation and had different distribution features in nine tasks. Ranked from high to low in terms of frequency, they were confirmation checks, clarification requests,"Assistance seeking","Others" and comprehension checks. During three terms, the frequency of "Assistance seeking" rose first and descended from Term Two to Term Three. The other four kinds of initiations kept steadily rising tendency. With respect to the negotiation triggers, this study found that content triggers had the highest frequency, lexical triggers the second highest. But they had different developmental tendency among nine tasks, with lexical triggers higher than content triggers in the first five tasks but lower than global triggers in the last four tasks. Morphosyntactic triggers ranked the third, next to it was the pronouncing triggers, which were even lower than the newly-found kind of triggers in this study,"Other-kinds". As to the negotiation output, this study found that two large kinds of negotiation output were often triggered by learner-learner negotiation:modified output and non-modified output. Although the frequency of modified output was not significantly higher than that of non-modified output, the ratio of modified output went on steadily over time and across tasks. Five types of non-modified output were found to be produced by learners in the study:repetition of triggers, repetition of initiations, failure to modify, expression of difficulty and switch to topic, with different features in forms.This study has found that the relaxing and free nature of learner-learner interaction, the special form of dyadic group, the social characteristics of the task topics and the cognitive complexity of the interactive tasks were the possible aspects that contributed to the features of learner conversational negotiations.In terms of the effectiveness of learner negotiation on language practice, it has been found that negotiation served as a complex sociocognitive resource that enabled learner-learner interactions. During negotiating process, learners effected coordinated interaction, both with their partners and environments, situations, tools, and affordances. Conversation negotiation provided language learners with the cognitive environment where learners obtained potential for the development of learners’competence in engagement, alignment and adaption. Through negotiation, learners completed interactive tasks successfully, and improved their sociolinguistic, sociointeractive and sociocognitive abilities. When it comes to the attributes of learner negotiation, results related to learner-learner negotiation showed that, during negotiating process, learners negotiated for meaning, for form, and for social relationships, social identities as well. To succeed in enabling the negotiating process, strategies of code-switching, constructing body language and using cognitive tools were found to be frequently managed by learners. In addition, four distinct patterns of dyadic interaction were found in the current study:the collaborative pattern, the dominant-dominant pattern, the expert-novice pattern and the expert-expert pattern. The entailments of learner-learner negotiated interaction can be reflected from co-construction of identity, co-engagement of thinking and reasoning and co-creation of intertextual and sociocultural connections.This study has also found that the social relationships among learners, the collaborative classroom environment and the learners’social and cultural knowledge were found to be the most significant among all the possible factors that influencing the functions of learner negotiated interaction on language acquisition and cognitive development to some extent.This study concluded that analysis of the nature of learner negotiation facilitates the exploration of language learning process and promotes the better understanding of the relationship among cognition, social action and the sociocognitive environment. The results would provide implications for instructional practice and research from the dimensions of highlighting the nature of negotiated interaction, raising the learners’ awareness of the efficacy of learner negotiated interaction, designing suitable interactive tasks, strengthening interactive strategy training, establishing collaborative classroom environment, using CA for exploration of interaction and improving cognition of learner negotiated interaction from the sociocognitive perspective.This dissertation finally presented a summary of the main findings of this study. Proposal was given to use CA for exploration of language learning practice. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future studies were finally presented.