A Study Of Disagreement Features In Classroom Peer Interactions

Disagreement is a familiar phenomenon in interpersonal interaction,which refers to contrasting attitudes reflected through speeches and body languages between the speaker and the listener.Disagreement,as a crucial part of conversational construction,has always been a hot topic in the field of SLA research from different perspectives.Within the theoretical framework of Socio-cultural Theory,adopting Conversational Analysis as the central tool for analysis,the present study investigated the episodes of peer disagreements in classroom peer interactive tasks.It was aimed at exploring the features of peer disagreements,the causes of disagreement features and the effects of peer disagreements on language practice.The present study found that,with respect to the types of disagreement,there were ten types of disagreement,namely,uncertain statement;inclusive 1 st person;partial agreement;subjective statement;adversative;verbal shadowing;contradictory statement;personal,accusatory you;question;combination of structure,among which contradictory statement and subjective statement occupied the largest percentages in three grades.Regarding to the patterns of disagreement,softened,neutral,aggravated disagreement and combination of structure were found,among which the frequency of softened disagreement was the highest.The study also found that there were four mainly nonverbal disagreement patterns: shaking hand,turning relative material,frowning and being silent in the current study.When it comes to the causes of disagreement features,possible aspects were explored from linguistic,cognitive and social levels respectively.From linguistic level,because of the limited proficiency of language,most learners adopted only contradictory statement and subjective statement more frequently,instead of employing accurate patterns to express their true views appropriately.From cognition level,due to the similarities of potential cognitive development level,softened disagreement was utilized by the majorityof all participants in three grades.Meanwhile,the same self-regulation in interaction for the individual and grade was also the primary reason influencing the distributions.From social level,the reason why major participants preferred to use mitigated pattern was that they were influenced by socio-cultural mediation-Chinese traditional background,relaxed peer interactive atmosphere and collaborative environment.In terms of the effectiveness of peer disagreement on language practice,the present study found that peer disagreement as a kind of discourse in classroom interactions,could contribute to setting up better scaffold,improving the development of ZPD and co-constructing of language expertise.The study also found that individual cognition was presented and critical thinking skills were cultivated during the process of disagreeing with partners.Meanwhile,some disagreements adopted in interactions presented Subject's higher social status and built harmonious relationship with social members by adopting appropriate disagreement discourses.This study concludes that analysis of the nature of peer disagreement contributes to boost learner's language capability,present individual cognition and maintain harmonious social atmosphere.