A CLASSROOM PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEGOTIATION OF MEANING

It is widely argued that engaging in communicative language tasks help s a learner develop in an L2 in several ways. Tasks provide an opportu nity not only to produce the target language, but also, through conver sational adjustments, to manipulate and modify it. Checking and clarif ying problem utterances ('negotiating for meaning') ensures that task participants receive comprehensible input and generate comprehensible output, both of which have been claimed as crucial to second language acquisition (SLA). Task type is considered significant, with those tas ks requiring an exchange of information most likely to prompt negotiat ions for meaning. This paper reports a classroom observation of the la nguage produced by intermediate EFL students engaged in required and o ptional information exchange tasks in both dyads and small groups. The results show no clear overall effect for task type or grouping, thoug h there was a discernible trend for dyads doing a two-way task to prod uce more negotiated interaction. However, it was noticeable that many students in the small groups did not speak at all, many more in both d yads and small groups did not initiate any negotiated interaction, and very few students in either setting produced any modified utterances. Such positive results as were obtained seemed to be due to the dispro portionate influence of a small number of the students, and so were no t typical of the group as a whole. The setting of the study within a c lassroom, as opposed to a venue especially arranged for data collectin g, is suggested as a significant variable; with important implications for group work research methodology. It is also suggested, contrary t o much SLA theorizing, that 'negotiating for meaning' is not a strateg y that language learners are predisposed to employ when they encounter gaps in their understanding.