Does Peer Leadership Make a Difference? Impact of Students in Leadership Roles on Group Work Engagement in the Second Language (67190)

Session Information: Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity
Session Chair: Windy Roberts

Friday, January 6, 2023 (13:55)
Session: Session 4
Room: 321A
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation

All presentation times are UTC-10 (Pacific/Honolulu)

This study examined the effect of the presence of a leader-role student or their leadership on group work engagement in the second language (L2). The participants were a total of 72 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) university students. They were assigned to groups of three, either with or without a student in the leadership role (24 groups in total). A picture description task was used in this study, in which participants were asked to collaborate with their group members to write the content in English within 20 minutes. The task was conducted online, and all students’ interactions were audio/video-recorded and transcribed. Participants’ engagement with the task was analyzed from multiple aspects, including behavioral (i.e., words produced and turns exchanged), cognitive (i.e., language-related episodes), and affective (i.e., motivational changes during the task). Results showed that: (1) approximately 1.4 times more speech and 1.3 times more turn were observed in the group with a leader than in the group without a leader; (2) there was little difference between the groups with and without a leader in terms of the number of language-related episodes during the task; and (3) motivation tended to be consistently higher in the group with a leader, but the difference was small and not statistically significant. The findings of this study suggest that while including students in leadership roles in group work can at least encourage students’ proactive engagement, it may be insufficient to promote more “authentic” engagement that involves deeper thinking about the language.

Authors:
Masahiro Yoshimura, Ryukoku University, Japan
Tomohito Hiromori, Meiji University, Japan
Makoto Mitsugi, Otaru University of Commerce, Japan


About the Presenter(s)
Dr Masahiro Yoshimura is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Ryukoku University in Japan

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00