The Effect Of Peer Interaction On Alignment In A Continuation Task

The present study aims to investigate the effect of ‘multidimensional’(Atkinson et al,2007) interaction on alignment, specifically in a continuation task. The continuationtask is defined by Wang (2012) as completing a story with its ending removed. It issuggested that learners conducting such a task are involved in learner—textinteraction, which leads to alignment with the preceding text (Wang&Wang,2014).This study, by incorporating a peer interaction session into a continuation task, isintended to examine whether an integration of learner—text interaction andlearner—learner interaction will enhance the alignment effect, that is, whether theparticipants mirror the preceding text to a greater or lesser extent after interactionswith a peer learner. And most importantly, the present study focuses on identifying themajor factors contributing to the (enhanced) alignment.To answer the research questions, an empirical study was carried out with a set ofprocedures and a number of analysis methods. Six participants from a college inChina, categorized as high-proficiency learners (3) and low-proficiency learners (3)based on the results from the Oxford Quick Placement Test, were invited to take partin the study. They were paired into High—High dyad, Low—Low dyad, andHigh—Low dyad. The study consisted of four steps. Participants were first required toread an incomplete story John the Blacksmith and write a continuation of itindividually within an hour; then the dyads designated beforehand were arranged toconduct a peer interaction session, and this process was recorded by a Mp4player;after that the participants were asked to revise their first compositions individually; anone-on-one interview about participants’ evaluation of the peer interaction sessionfollowed, being recorded as well. The data for analysis included participants’ first andrevised continuations, their interview recordings, and peer interaction recordings.The results based on this empirical study reveal that multidimensional interactiondid exert a positive influence on alignment in a continuation task, which lent support to the hypothesis that the intensity of alignment hinges on interactions (Wang,2010;Wang&Wang,2014); the stronger the interaction is, the better the alignment can be.By comparing participants’ first and revised continuations, it is apparent that ingeneral the second drafts aligned more frequently with the preceding text in terms ofwords, phrases and sentences than the first drafts. And learners’ interview responseswere also in line with that, confirming the positive effect of learner—learnerinteraction embedded. In addition, the major factors contributing to the enhancedalignment were identified as Comprehension, Development, and Noticing PassageSaliency. While Comprehension and Development were conducive to learners’construction of appropriate situational models and subsequent activation of relevantlinguistic forms (Interactive Alignment Model: Pickering&Garrod,2004), NoticingPassage Saliency results in featured language reuse (Schmidt,1990). These factorsstrongly facilitate participants’ alignment in a continuation task.Overall, this study has gleaned empirical evidence for the hypothesis that themagnitude of alignment relies on interaction. It verifies that learner—learnerinteraction coupled with learner—text interaction in a continuation task would have asignificant impact on alignment. This is achieved by helping each other comprehend,develop, and notice the salient features of the story. The findings deserve specialconsideration in English teaching and learning. SLA teachers and learners areencouraged to improve their effectiveness of L2learning by increasing the numberand dimensions of interaction, since the rich contextual knowledge brought aboutthrough interaction is more likely to activate accurate language use (Wang,2009).