Journal Screenshot

International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2222-6990

Impact of Discussions on Task Performance Among Malaysian Tertiary-Level Students with Mixed Proficiency

Siew Fong Lin

http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v10-i5/7175

Open access

Investigation on the use of discussions during task performance among Malaysian students from a degree in psychology programme is the objective of this study. The participants selected had completed a product-centred English course which focused on communication at the workplace, academic writing and reading for academic purposes prior to data collection. A group-writing task in the form of producing a memorandum was performed by the participants in this study. Research instruments used to obtain data of the student collaboration were interviews, diary entries and observations. Consequently, benefits and challenges on task performance derived from the use of discussions were obtained. It could be concluded that student collaboration among mixed proficiency students should be monitored closely so that the collaborators regardless of their proficiency could mutually benefit from the sessions.

Ariza, J. A. (2016). Design of open source platform for automatic control systems education based on cooperative learning [Conference Session]. Frontiers in Education Conference, Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel, Erie, PA.
Bennett, N., & Cass, A. (1988). The effects of group composition on group interactive processes and pupil understanding. British Educational Research Journal, 15(1), 1988.
Brown, F. (2008). Collaborative learning in the EAP classroom: students’ perceptions. ESP World,17(7), 1-18.
Chao, Y. C. J., & Lo, H. C. (2011). Students' perceptions of wiki-based collaborative writing for learners of English as a foreign language. Interactive Learning Environments, 19(4), 395-411.
Gavelek, J., & Raphael, T. (1996). Changing talk about text: New roles for teachers and students. Language Arts, 73, 182-192.
Hernández, R. (2012). Collaborative learning: Increasing students’ engagement outside the classroom. US-China Education Review, A 9, 804-812.
Hyland, K. (2016). Teaching and researching writing. Routledge.
Lantolf, J. P., & Appel, G. (1994). Vygotskian approaches to second language research. Ablex Pub. Corp.
Lee, L., Lajoie, S., Poitras, E., Nkangu, M., & Doleck, T. (2017). Co-regulation and knowledge construction in an online synchronous problem-based learning setting. Education and Information Technologies, 22(4), 1623-1650.
Lewis, C. (1997). The social drama of literature discussions in a fifth/sixth-grade classroom. Research in the Teaching of English, 31, 163-204.
Lowry, P. B., Curtis, A., & Lowry, M. R. (2004). Building a taxonomy and nomenclature of collaborative writing to improve interdisciplinary research and practice. Journal of Business Communication, 41(1), 66-99.
Mercer, N. (1995). The guided construction of knowledge. Multilingual Matters.
Mirel, B., & Spilka, R. (Eds.) (2002). Reshaping technical communication: New directions and challenges for the 21st century. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ong, P. L., & Nooreiny Maarof. (2013). Collaborative Writing in Summary Writing: Student Perceptions and Problems. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 90, 599 - 606.
Ranjbar, N., Ghonsooly, B., & Hamedan, F. (2017). Peer scaffolding behaviours emerging in revising a written task: A microgenetic analysis. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 5(2), 75-90.
Rice, R. P., & Huguley, J. T. Jr. (1994). Describing collaborative forms: a profile of the team-writing process. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 37(3), 163-170.
Richards, J. B., & Schwartzstein, R. M. (2019). Teaching Pre-clinical Medical Students (Kritek P. & Richards J., Eds.). Humana, Cham.
Schwartz, M. ,& Gorbatt, N. (2017). There is No Need for Translation: She Understands: Teachers’ Mediation Strategies in a Bilingual Preschool Classroom. Modern Language Journal, 101(1), 143-162.
Storch, N. (2005). Collaborative writing: product, process, and students’ reflections. Journal of Second Language Writing, 14, 153-173.
Storch, N. (2019). Collaborative writing. Language Teaching, 52(1), 40-59. https//:doi:10.1017/S0261444818000320
Vandergriff, I. (2016). Second-language discourse in the digital world: Linguistic and social practices in and beyond the networked classroom. John Benjamins.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1981). The genesis of higher mental functions. (J.V. Wertsch, Ed.), Armonk.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. (R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton, Trans.). Plenum Press. (Original works published in 1934, 1960).
Waggoner, M., Chinn, C., Yi, H., & Anderson, R. C. (1995). Collaborative reasoning about stories. Language Arts, 72, 582–589.
Watanabe, Y. & Swain, M. (2007). Effects of proficiency differences and patterns of pair interaction on second language learning: collaborative dialogue between adult ESL learners. Language Teaching Research, 11(2), 121-142.
Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsk

In-Text Citation: (Lin, 2020)
To Cite this Article: Lin, S. F. (2020). Impact of Discussions on Task Performance Among Malaysian Tertiary-Level Students with Mixed Proficiency. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(5), 77–85.