Language-related episodes in EFL peer interaction: a descriptive comparison of three collaborative speaking tasks in an intact classroom

This exploratory classroom-based qualitative case study, supported by descriptive quantification, examined language-related episodes (LREs), learner participation and learner perceptions across three collaborative speaking tasks in an intact university EFL classroom. Twenty-two pre-intermediate learners completed a case-based discussion, a gallery walk and a Socratic discussion. Data comprised recordings of four groups during 110 min of task time and open-ended post-task surveys. 231 LREs were identified, including 211 student-initiated episodes. Meaning-based LREs predominated, indicating that learners' explicit attention to language centred mainly on lexical meaning and expression, and most student-initiated episodes were appropriately resolved in the immediate interactional context. The gallery walk showed the highest student-initiated LRE density, whereas the case-based discussion generated the greatest learner-talk volume and the highest number of student turns. Learner perceptions did not fully parallel these interactional patterns: learners more frequently reported increased willingness to participate orally and greater comfort in the case-based discussion, whereas the gallery walk and Socratic discussion were more frequently perceived as demanding and less accessible. Rather than identifying an optimal task, the findings show that language-focused activity, participation and task experience can show different patterns across collaborative speaking tasks, supporting the value of examining these dimensions together in classroom instruction.