Shared time, shared problems? Exploring the dynamics of paired writing conferences

ABSTRACT

The teacher–student writing conference has long been recognized as being able to provide personalized instruction and contribute to learners’ writing development. However, teachers often find it time-consuming to conference with individual students on a regular basis. Conferencing with pairs of students, therefore, may become a more pragmatic option. While a promising approach, so far the practice of paired conferencing has received scant research attention. This exploratory case study investigated the dynamics of paired conferences held between 1 writing instructor and 23 Chinese-speaking undergraduates learning English as a foreign language, as well as students’ perceptions of paired conferencing. Data collected included 11 videotaped conferences, audiotaped interviews with the instructor and students, and a student questionnaire. Through a discourse analysis performed on the conference data, this study found that to justify and facilitate paired conferencing, the instructor employed strategies such as assigning pre-conference peer review, identifying shared problems, and involving the other tutee in problem solving. Results also indicated that peer interaction during the conference was limited, but the pre-conference peer review seemed to contribute to learners’ awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses. Overall, this study showed that students held favorable opinions about paired conferencing although sharing teacher time and attention might still be a concern with some students.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing conferences
• paired instruction
• L2 writing
• student attitudes
• writing instruction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In Mandarin Chinese, pronouns have singular and plural forms, while in English, the second person pronoun you in both singular and plural is the same. Therefore, “you (plural)” is used in translation to denote the plural you in the conference data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan [Grant Number NSC100-2410-H-194-106-MY2].

Notes on contributors

Chun-Chun Yeh

Chun-Chun Yeh is an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. She teaches English as a foreign language (EFL) writing, translation, and courses in a master’s program in teaching EFL. Her research focuses on writing instruction at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in EFL learning contexts.