| Summary: | This study scrutinised the discursive behaviour of Jordanian learners of English by
tracking their orientation to specific roles assigned by the teacher, i.e. the group leader
and the group members, and its effects on language learning. English is often taught
through small group task interactions to optimise student involvement. However, the
group works are not always successful, as not all students have good interactional
competence. Most research in leamer-learner interaction focuses on dyadic
communication or the relationships between task types and interactional patterns, and
not much work has described in detail how students lead and participate in small group
discussions to accomplish a task, especially in the Jordanian context. Drawing on the
Conversation Analysis perspective of identity and Classroom Interactional
Competence this study highlighted foreign language learners' discursive behaviour in
small group task interactions. This study applied the Conversation Analysis method in
the examination of audio-and video recordings of leamer-learner group interactions in
Mutah University in Jordan. The group interactions took place in two speaking
classrooms: Classroom B 1, which consists of 12 English major undergraduates and
Classroom B2, which consists of 12 graduates from different majors, such as Business
Administration and International Relations. Learners in Classroom B 1 learn to speak to
fulfil part of their Bachelor's degree requirement whilst learners in Classroom B2 are
being prepared for the TOEFL examination. The same teacher, Teacher A, teaches both
classrooms Bland B2. Throughout th data generation period, which took place from
February to April 2019, a total of three speaking classroom activities were recorded in
each class and field notes were taken. Th findings reveal that the assigned group
leaders took on a teacher's role by performing several pedagogical practices. They
allocated turns, gave instructions, repair and initiated repairs, provided scaffold
feedback, and explained word meanings. Other group members responded to
nominations, made contributions, requested clarification, and sought language
assistance. Through this co-orientation to 'doing being a group leader', the foreign
language learners demonstrated classroom interactional competent in group discussions
led by a peer participant. The findings of this study have implications for language
learning through group task interactions. It argues that the Self-Evaluation of Student
Talk must be constructed to enable a holistic understanding of foreign language
classroom interaction and to facilitate student self-reflective practices.
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