Interactive Groups: Fostering Collaborative Interactions in an Additional Language in a Multilingual Context

Abstract

Research has shown that participating in collaborative interactions is essential both for language learning and for effective access to school content, which is even more important in multilingual contexts where a large proportion of students are in schools where the language of instruction is different from the language of the home context. However, research still needs to analyse further educational actions that succeed in generating collaborative interactions under these circumstances. This exploratory study analyses an educational action called Interactive Groups in a multilingual context in which Basque is the language of instruction and is the L2 for most pupils. Using the Communicative Methodology, twenty-one Interactive Groups were video recorded and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Two interviews were conducted with teachers, one with a volunteer, seven with students, and two focus groups with students. The results show that collaborative interactions in the target language prevail in these Interactive Groups, which is achieved because both the adult and the students generate a collective scaffolding that (a) encourages focusing on the academic task, (b) neutralises disruptive behaviours and (c) activates solidarity among students to overcome learning difficulties. The educational implications of the results are discussed.