Interaction in group writing tasks in genre-based instruction in an EAP classroom

Instruction in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing classes often involves the use of group writing tasks in which small groups of students co-construct written texts. One purpose of using such tasks is for students to negotiate the meanings they wish to express and in so doing engage in language related episodes (discussion of language forms). In writing classes it is expected that at least some of the language related episodes will be discourse related and concern aspects of writing, such as text organisation and genre conventions. The study reported in this paper aimed to investigate the extent to which students discussed language forms (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, discourse, etc) while engaged in small group writing tasks. The study focused particularly on students’ discussion of text and discourse by recording, transcribing and analysing small group interaction and the roles students played during group writing tasks. The analysis showed that the students paid considerable attention to language forms in general and to discourse in particular.