ABSTRACT Oral interaction plays a facilitative role in second language acquisition. While numerous studies have explored adult learners’ interactions, research that has examined young learners’ interactions, especially among Chinese as a second language learners (CSLs), is lacking. This study focused on CSLs and Chinese‐speaking students (CSSs) in Hong Kong, aged between 10 and 12, and investigated how interlocutor type and patterns of interaction affected their negotiation of meaning (NoM) strategies. Participants were assigned to either CSL–CSL or CSL–CSS pairs and completed four communicative tasks. Their interactions were video and audio‐recorded, transcribed, and analysed for patterns of interaction and NoM strategies. Comparisons were then made between the two groups. Findings revealed that CSL–CSL pairs exhibited a higher percentage of collaborative patterns but a lower percentage of expert/novice patterns than the CSL–CSS pairs did. In terms of NoM strategies, the CSL–CSL group produced significantly more other‐repetitions than the CSL–CSS group did. Subsequently, the frequencies of NoM strategies were compared across five distinct patterns of interaction. The results showed that collaborative pairs exhibited a significantly higher frequency of NoM strategies than parallel passive and dominant/passive pairs did in both groups. Notably, in the CSL–CSL group, expert/novice pairs produced significantly more NoM strategies than parallel passive pairs did. In the CSL–CSS group, expert/novice pairs generated significantly more NoM strategies than parallel passive and dominant/passive pairs did.
Jing Yan (Fri,) studied this question.