Chapter 5. The impact of intra-cultural and inter-cultural task repetition on interaction

Abstract

Previous classroom-based research has shown that task repetition (Kim, 2013) and interlocutor proficiency (e.g. Watanabe & Swain, 2007) can affect the extent to which learners reflect on language form during the performance of collaborative tasks. Furthering these lines of inquiry, this study compares the effect of task repetition on Japanese EFL learners’ attention to linguistic form during the performances of oral tasks under two conditions: when task repetition involves (1) a Japanese interlocutor and (2) a non-Japanese interlocutor. Japanese learners (n = 36) from two EFL classes performed two oral, collaborative tasks in pairs. In one class, learners were paired with international, English-speaking students (n = 18), while in the other class learners were paired with peers of the same class. Participants in each group kept the same partner for the duration of the initial and repeated task performances. Task interactions were transcribed and analyzed in terms of language-related episodes (LREs). Results indicated that repeating tasks with a non-Japanese interlocutor led to a number of significant benefits, including a higher incidence of LREs overall, more episodes being resolved with uptake, and a higher rate of complex and grammatical LREs than during the first task performances. On the other hand, repetition with a Japanese interlocutor resulted in no significant change in LRE production, but a significant decrease in the production of lexical LREs.