What are they doing when they feel collaborative? Another aspect of task-based performance

The primary concern of TBLT research is L2 learners’ language use during a task and how it contributes to L2 development. To this end, much research has examined task characteristics and task implementation procedures; however, learner psychology as a potential factor of TBLT effectiveness has rarely been investigated. Focusing on the construct of collaboration, the current study explored how L2 learners’ perceived degrees of collaboration related to their L2 use during groupwork. Participants were 102 high-school students at a public school in Chile who formed groups of three (34 groups in total). They engaged in a decision-making task in which they reached a consensus as to what new facility to add (e.g., swimming pool) to their own school. One day after the task, they individually participated in retrospective idiodynamic sessions designed to examine their second-by-second perceptions of collaboration. During the idiodynamic session, participants indicated when they felt more or less collaborative while looking at their own task-based performance. After the session, they were asked to elaborate their feelings when their perceived collaboration peaked (highs and lows). The analysis focused on L2 use (e.g., attention to form) at the high and low peaks of collaboration of individual learners. Results showed that the degrees of collaboration were not related to the amount of attention learners paid to linguistic issues, which was confirmed by their interview comments. Rather, their perceived collaboration was reflected on group dynamics issues, such as contributing ideas (high peaks) and ignoring ideas (low peaks), that may have influenced the ultimate effectiveness of the task. While the findings raise a question as to how important collaboration is for a task to be conducive to L2 learning, they suggest a possibility of learner psychology as another way to understand task-based performance.