The effect of the interlocutor variable on oral interaction in EFL Secondary School students

The aim of the present study is
to explore the effects of the
interlocutor variable in the
interaction of Secondary School students learning English as
a foreign language (EFL) in
Spain and derive pedagogical implications. Most of the studies on interaction focus on adults and more recently also on children, but there is a scarcity of studies on teenagers’ oral
interaction, what makes it a relatively unexplored research
niche. The current study was
carried out with five 14-15-year-old, L1-Spanish students
with a comparable level of
proficiency, who performed three spot-the-difference tasks paired with three different
interlocutors, two expert adult speakers of the target language (TL), the researcher and their English teacher, and same-level peers. The results indicate that the interlocutor variable
exerts an influence on the students’ performance and affect s their negotiation of meaning
(NoM). The students produced more NoM strategies, more L1 use and more language when they were in dyads in peer interaction. Finding s shed light on the beneficial role of oral
interaction through information gap-tasks for teenagers.