The Relation of Interactions and Story Quality Among Mexican American and Anglo American Students With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of the social interactions during a cooperative writing structure and explore how interactions relate to the quality of the written stories. During a 12-week period, Mexican American and Anglo American students with learning disabilities were videotaped while they wrote stories in ethnically heterogeneous and homogeneous dyads using a simple word processing program. In general, the data suggest that both groups of students were skilled in maintaining positive and assertive reciprocal interactions during writing together, whether paired with a partner of the same or different ethnicity. The students helped one another with spelling; however, there was a negative relation between the total initiation-response exchanges and the length and coherence of the stories. Implications for instruction of second language learners and students with learning disabilities are discussed.