IDENTIFYING PATTERNS OF INTERACTION, LRES AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS IN COLLABORATIVE WRITING: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY

Collaborative writing involves students working together and dividing tasks to co-construct a text, sharing ideas, negotiating content, and refining language. This approach fosters discussion, peer interaction, critical thinking, and active engagement in the writing process. Language-Related Episodes (LREs) occur during these interactions, where learners focus on specific linguistic aspects, such as grammar, vocabulary, or discourse structure. This study aims at identifying the patterns of interactions and Language Related Episodes that occur during the production of an argumentative essay. The study also seeks to describe students’ perception towards collaborative writing. It follows a qualitative design with 30 pre-service teachers of English from a Chilean university participating. The data collection instruments included a semi-structured interview, an interaction analysis framework based on Storch (2002) and a Language Related Episode identification framework. The results indicated that the most identified patterns of interaction were collaborative, dominant-passive and expert-novice. Regarding Language Related Episodes, it could be observed that participants of the study focused more on grammar and vocabulary. Finally, regarding students' perceptions of collaborative work, it was found that they recognized more advantages than disadvantages. Some of the identified advantages included promoting discussion, resolving doubts, and learning from others. As for the disadvantages, the only one identified was the difficulty in reaching agreements. Collaborative writing fosters meaningful interactions and language development through varied patterns and LREs. Students' positive perceptions highlight their value in enhancing linguistic and communicative skills as well as fostering teamwork, making it a valuable tool for pre-service teacher education.