Cultivating active engagement in pair work through peer modelling

The present study reports on how peer modelling with collaborative ground rules may contribute to the pair dynamics of one intermediate-level English L2 learner when interacting with peers of the same as well as higher proficiency levels. The study was one-semester long (i.e., nine sessions) and our pair talk data were collected from an intact class where pair members were involved in performing narrative tasks. In this study, we focused on how one intermediate (i.e., core) learner as listener interacted in core-intermediate and core-advanced pairs in the opening talk of narrative tasks across sessions. Each session, adult Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students narrated their short stories to three different interlocutors and also listened to three short stories of their classmates while recording their voices. On the fifth session, students viewed a staged peer modelling demonstration with built-in collaborative ground rules. The peer modelling was intended to demonstrate to the learners how best to perform the task to their mutual benefit. We transcribed pair talk data from the focused pairs and analysed them for instances of changes in pair dynamics and quantity of collaborative features based on Storch's framework. The results indicated that both core-intermediate and core-advanced pairs demonstrated more collaborative pair dynamics after the peer modelling session; the core-advanced pairs made greater improvement in terms of instances and number of collaborative features. Trends in our data support peer modelling as one effective pedagogical technique to raise learners’ awareness and to assist them in creating quality learning opportunities in their pair interaction. Our findings are discussed in terms of its implications for the integration of peer modelling in pair work tasks in language learning settings.