Mediational Processes in Support of Learner L2 Writing Development: Individual, Peer, and Group Contexts

Abstract

The present article reports on a study that extends Dynamic Assessment (DA) to the domain of second language (L2) writing instruction. As in general education, the L2 field has increasingly moved toward a process approach to writing that emphasizes the importance of multiple drafts, opportunities for feedback, and attempts at revision. The present study, undertaken collaboratively with an experienced classroom teacher of L2 Japanese, reformulated this process as three interrelated stages of mediated activity: an initial DA session in which the teacher prompted learners to identify and correct errors in order to identify knowledge and abilities that were in the process of emerging; a peer mediation session to collaboratively review, discuss, and correct exemplar sentences containing representative problematic constructions; and a whole-class discussion of the language constructions. Analysis of recorded and transcribed sessions indicates the value to learners of collaboratively discussing and correcting similar error types in their peers’ writing.