Willingness to engage: the importance of what learners bring to pair work

Abstract

This study draws on Sociocultural Theory to explore how 12 adult EFL learners engaged in pair work, how their willingness to engage was demonstrated in pair activities, and what other factors influenced that willingness. Six pairs engaged in seven different activities and were interviewed after all activities were completed. Each pair’s type of interaction and each learner’s perception of the interactions were analysed. Five distinct types of pair interactions were found from the pair work data, and most pairs showed more than two types of interactions when performing activities with the same partner. The interview data revealed that learners’ willingness to engage with each other in pair work influences the nature of pair work and that willingness is influenced by the perceived difficulty of the activity and social considerations such as the partner’s attitude and proficiency level. These findings suggest that what influences learner engagement is not the pair work per se but what learners bring to the pair work.

Keywords:

• Willingness to engage
• peer interaction
• sociocultural theory
• learner perceptions
• collaborative learning
• EFL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The maximum number of students in each class was 30.

2 Activities one to five were selected from supplementary books related to the course syllabus; activities six and seven were created by the researcher.

3 Even though activity two was a ‘story construction’ activity, it was not cognitively demanding in that a sample dialogue was presented and similar outcomes among the learners were expected.

4 Korean is the researcher’s and all participants’ first language.

5 See the transcription conventions in Appendix B.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Youn-hee Kim

Youn-hee Kim is a researcher in the Department of English at Korea Aerospace University. The focus of her current research is on the role of peer interaction in L2 development and a social relationship between learners in a classroom context