Abstract:
This study investigated the effect of transcribing group-discussion tasks on the development of university students' autonomy and oral proficiency. A quasi-experimental research design was followed to compare the performances of four groups: two experimental groups and two control groups (each group divided into low and high proficiency students). The study lasted for 12 weeks, and the teacher assigned a classroom oral discussion task in each session. The students were divided into discussion groups of three or four students, with low and high proficiency learners in different groups. The participants had to record their group discussion tasks. Control groups’ students had to submit their recorded conversations to their instructor, but they did not do any post-task activity. However, the experimental groups’ students had to transcribe their recorded speaking tasks, to find their own and their peers' grammatical mistakes, and to correct them. Finally, while working in groups, students discussed the texts and reformulated their mistakes. Employing ANCOVA to analyze the results, researchers found that experimental groups significantly outperformed the students of the control groups on post-tests of oral proficiency and learner autonomy. Thus, transcription followed by reflection on inaccurate production contributed to the superior performance of participants in the experimental groups.
Machine summary:
Abstract This study aimed at measuring the impact of transcribing group-discussion tasks on the development of university students' autonomy and oral proficiency.
Thus far, however, few investigations have been conducted to empirically examine the effects of using this task on the development of second language learners' oral proficiency and level of autonomy.
Bearing the above ideas in mind, and relying on the principles of constructivism and sociocultural theory, this study aims at investigating the extent to which university students at different proficiency levels benefit from a follow-up post task activity in their development of oral proficiency and autonomy.
Table 2 ANCOVA results for oral proficiency (View the image of this page) The second research question addressed the effect of transcription task followed by self- and peer-correction on the participants' level of autonomy.
Table 3 ANCOVA results for level of autonomy (View the image of this page) Overall, the results indicate that participants in experimental groups (both high and low proficiency groups) benefitted from the transcription of their oral output which was accompanied by self-and- peer-correction exercise, cooperative reflection, and reformulating their language errors.
Discussion This study aimed to examine the effects of transcription followed by self and peer-correction activities on the development of low and high proficiency students' oral proficiency and level of autonomy.
Conclusion and Implications In this study, the researchers aimed to examine the effects that transcribing the oral output followed by self-and-peer-correction of incorrect language forms might have on low and high proficiency students’ performances on oral proficiency test and level of autonomy.