The Effect Of Different Language Proficiency Pairing In Collaborative Writing On Senior High School Student’s English Learning

Collaborative writing,as one approach in the field of second language teaching,aroused scholars’ attention at home and abroad.Many studies confirmed that collaborative writing can impose a positive effect on students’ English learning,however,concerning factors that influence the effect of collaborative writing such as proficiency pairing,task type and patterns of interaction didn’t draw a definite conclusion.To investigate the effect of proficiency pairing on senior high school students’ English learning in collaborative writing,this study analyzed students’ produced language-related episodes from the perspective of number,type,outcome,the identification and calculation of the scaffolding strategies and students’ retention by conducting tailor-made posttests.Three research questions were discussed in this study: the effect of proficiency pairing in collaborative writing on students’ production of LREs,the effect of proficiency pairing on the students’ retention of language learning,and the effect of proficiency pairing on students’ use of scaffolding strategies.This study invited 24 senior high school students from Grade twelve in Shanghai Jinshan World Foreign Language School as the participants.They were divided into 12 pairs based on their language proficiency: four H-H pairs,four H-L pairs,and four L-L pairs.Every dyad was required to complete one collaborative writing task.When they were completing it,their dialogues were audio-typed and transcribed.Every student was required to finish the tailor-made posttest one week later.There were four major findings in the study: First,proficiency pairing did have a significant effect on students’ production of LREs.24 students produced 344 LREs,with the largest proportion of lexis-focused LREs,followed by grammar-focused LREs and discourse-focused LREs.Among them,H-L group generated the largest number of LREs,followed by L-L group and H-H group in sequence.The finding suggested that H-L pairs can produce more LREs.Second,collaborative writing could help students to find solutions effectively,81.7% of questions were successfully solved and H-H group solved the most language problems.Third,proficiency pairing could assist students to retain the learned knowledge.Students could retain most of the knowledge through the demonstration of tailor-made posttests.H-H group performed best from the perspective of retention.Finally,scaffolding strategies served as the internal mechanism of promoting students’ language learning in collaborative learning.Seven scaffolding strategies were employed in the process of collaboration writing,and L-L pairs used more scaffolding strategies.This study confirmed that proficiency pairing could impose different influences on senior high school students’ English learning and served as a reference for the implementation of the relative studies.