5. Building explicit L2 Spanish knowledge through guided induction in small group and whole class interaction

This chapter explores interactions among American high school learners of L2 Spanish during three lessons on the pronominal clitic se which were designed to promote grammatical consciousness-raising through guided induction. Following Adair-Hauck, Donato, and Cumo-Johanssen­ (2010), each lesson first presented a property of se within a narrative text, with learners then inductively “co-constructing” rules in small groups, followed by a whole class discussion where the teacher guided learners toward a consensus. Analyses of the small group and whole class discussions focused on the amount of analytic talk produced by individual learners and the types of interactions among learners. The results suggest that although the amount of analytic talk varied considerably across individuals, the tasks promoted consciousness-raising of the target form.