A Socioculturally Microgenetic Scrutiny on the Mediational Role of Teacher/Peer Scaffolding via Dialogic Collaboration in EFL Speaking Development

Abstract

: This study draws primarily on ZPD and concept of mediation (a key element in the sociocultural theory) to analyze the mediational talk in speaking group-works. The authors present an analysis of how EFL learners' speaking skill is socioculturally mediated and developed through teacher-student and student-student collaborative interactions. Situated micro genesis was used as a tool for analyzing the interactions generated between the participants during a dialog making task. The results showed the characteristics of a dialogic communication among the learners as they took part in diverse conversation-making tasks collaboratively. Consequently, the analysis of the communicative discourse of the EFL speaking tasks was indicative of precious insights into the nature of the peer-peer and student-teacher interactions as well as their pivotal contributions to scaffolding the EFL learners' speaking skill in different forms. The findings provide worthwhile evidence substantiating that dialogic exchanges in collaborative tasks are crucial as a mediationally facilitative activity conducive to the improvement of second language speaking ability. Finally, the study proposes some constructive implications for EFL instructors encouraging the integration of collaborative tasks in their speaking classes.