L2 writing conferences: Investigating teacher talk

Although the role of social interaction through conversational activities is well established in the L2 writing classroom in relation to idea development, understanding rhetorical modes, the creation of a sense of audience, as well as the promotion of feedback, relatively little attention has been given to the actual discourse of teachers and learners, particularly in face-to-face writing conferences. Previous investigations of teacher talk in L2 conferences suggest that when there is more talk around revision in the conference, the revisions are more successful. However, these studies have employed different frameworks for analysis, investigated mostly high-proficiency learners, and have not systematically compared the relationship of the topics addressed in the conferences to the nature of the discourse. In contrast, this study employs two frameworks for analysis, negotiation and scaffolding, to investigate the discursive quality of two teachers, whose writing conferences with prematriculated ESL learners attended to very different writing concerns. Neither framework alone captured the differences between the teachers’ conferences, but together patterns of difference were evident. Certain combinations of negotiation and scaffolding moves in relation to conference focus allowed one teacher to vary assistance in relation to the proficiency of the learners and promote greater learner participation in the review of their writing.