Peer-to-peer interaction in task-based learning and the development of young EFL learners’ productive vocabulary: an exploratory study

[EN] Peer-to-peer interaction research contends that learning stems from both language-related episodes (LREs), which feature overt discussions about the language, and overall peer-to-peer interaction that does not focus on the language itself. However, most studies examining language gains have centred on the former and the extent to which learning can occur without paying joint attention to the language (i.e. implicitly) remains under-researched, especially in young learners’ (YLs) acquisition of vocabulary. Moreover, task modality has been identified as a variable affecting students’ interaction and, potentially, language gains. This paper tries to fill these gaps by analysing the lexical gains and their relationship to LREs (including resolution) and to overall interaction in a productive vocabulary pretest/post-test by 34 Basque/Spanish bilingual YLs in Grades 4 and 6 (aged 9–10 and 11–12, respectively) after completing an oral+oral or an oral+written storytelling task in pairs. Lexical gains were observed both in words that were the focus of their LREs and in words that were produced during YLs’ interaction but were not part of an LRE, suggesting both explicit and implicit learning. The oral+oral task appeared to favour implicit learning whereas the oral+written task seemed to be more conducive to explicit learning.