Young learner autonomy in synchronous oral telecollaborative tasks

Abstract This study examines the potential of synchronous oral telecollaborative tasks to foster learner autonomy among young language learners. Previous research highlights both the language learning affordances of technology-mediated task-based language teaching and challenges for successful implementation with young learners and suggests that learner autonomy is an important mediating variable. The present article investigates autonomy by exploring learner participation during task-as-process and the teacher’s role in creating opportunities for learning in technology-mediated exchanges. We propose a new analytical framework based on the notion of arena , drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical concept of frontstage versus backstage interaction, to inform a fine-grained investigation of turn-taking during the same task-as-workplan implemented in two French primary school classrooms with learners of English of CEFR A1 level. Quantitative analysis of the interaction data revealed contrasting participation patterns in various task phases and across different areas of the interactional arena. In one class, learners managed the task independently; the teacher intervened only once, and learners exhibited significantly higher on-task time and greater frontstage engagement. In the other class, the teacher participated in backstage task management, providing prompting and echoing, and also in frontstage interaction, and this in all task phases. The study underlines young learners’ capacity for successful L2 interaction in synchronous telecollaboration and traces critical links between learner autonomy and teachers’ interpretation of tasks.