The JALT CALL Journal
Vol. 1, No. 2, August 2005, pp. 21-40

Collaborative Interaction as the Process of Task Completion

Nobue Tanaka
University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract:

The current study analyses how learners of Japanese interpreted and completed tasks through collaborative interaction in two task-based CALL classes at a secondary school in Australia. Sociocultural approaches of mediation and the zone of proximal development were employed as the analytical tools to identify patterns and roles of collaborative interaction during task interpretation and completion. The paper also critically analyses the suitability of sociocultural approaches as analytical tools for analysing the collaborative interaction occurred during completion of an open-ended task. The paper concludes with implications for new analytical tools and further research.