Effects Of Proficiency Differences And Interactive Patterns On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In The Collaborative Writing Task

Based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory,this study aimed to explore the effect of proficiency differences in pairs and interaction patterns on learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in the collaborative writing tasks.Mixed methods were used in this study.The participants were 24 English major freshmen in a Chinese university.They were divided into high-proficiency group and low-proficiency group,and paired into three collaborative pairs:High-High pair,High-Low pair and Low-Low pair.Participants completed collaborative writing tasks.SPSS was applied to analyze and compare the results of vocabulary tests.The interactive patterns were judged according to the qualitative analysis of collaborative dialogue in the collaborative writing task and a questionnaire was used as supplementary data.The results show: 1)Participants in High-Low pairs performed better in incidental vocabulary acquisition than those in High-High pairs and Low-Low pairs.However,no significant difference was found for low-proficiency learners between High-Low pairs and Low-Low pairs.2)Four interactive patterns were identified in collaborative writing tasks:collaborative,expert/novice,dominant/dominant and dominant/passive.Besides,the collaborative interactive pattern took the predominant role in all proficiency differences pairs.3)Collaborative orientation interactive patterns(collaborative pattern and expert/novice pattern)can benefit participants better in incidental vocabulary acquisition than non-collaborative orientation interactive patterns(dominant/dominant and dominant/passive).However,no significant difference was found between these two patterns for high-proficiency learners in receptive vocabulary knowledge acquisition and for low-proficiency learners in productive vocabulary knowledge acquisition.This study provides enlightenment for vocabulary teaching in second language teaching and learning.For collaborative tasks in second language classroom,teachers can pair learners according to their proficiency and facilitate collaboration in the light of emerging interaction patterns to promote learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition.