Role Reversals: A Case Study of Dialogic Interactions and Feedback on L2 Writing

Abstract

Much scholarship on second language writing feedback has focused on teacher-L2 writer dialogic interactions. Many of these studies, however, adopt the concept of scaffolding (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) which in its application could be considered a deficit model as the teacher addresses linguistic limitations of the learner. This study explored reversing these roles, drawing on the Bakhtin (1981) concept of dialogism to explore feedback interactions where the L2 writer and I (the researcher) were both developing understanding. An 11-week participant-researcher case study sought to examine the role of dialogic interactions in which I had more advanced English language skills, but had less extensive knowledge about the content, while the participant was developing (an already advanced) English proficiency, but held critical knowledge in the content area. Results showed that dialogic interactions facilitated the linguistic revisions of the participant’s writing by contributing to the participant’s increased awareness of audience, and also providing her a channel, through speech, to clarify text excerpts that I struggled to understand in writing.