Emergent Leadership and Group Interaction in the Task‐Based Language Classroom

Abstract

Learning language in the classroom often means interacting with peers in small groups. There is a growing body of empirical research highlighting the factors that have an impact on student interaction and an increasing focus on the social context. This article aims to broaden the focus of research by considering the influence of emergent leadership on group interaction and opportunities for language learning. Japanese university students in an oral English course were placed into random small groups, fixed for a semester. The researcher collected video observation data of student classroom interaction twice during the semester, during midterm and final group conversation tests. Students rated the leadership of group members, and interactions were analyzed by selecting individuals representing strong leadership, moderate leadership, and weak or no leadership. The researcher conducted a regression analysis to determine the relative influence of English proficiency, extraversion, and leadership on behavioral engagement. Language‐related episodes also were examined to determine cognitive engagement. Results show that leadership rather than proficiency or extraversion predicted participation in conversation, and cognitive engagement seemed to be negatively associated with strong leadership. The implications of emergent leadership for researchers and teachers are discussed.

Leadership emergence: An integrative review.

“…In addition, the leadership emergence literature has unfolded across seven decades with research appearing in academic journals across multiple disciplines including (but not limited to): communication (Jiang et al, 2015), criminal justice (Bishopp, 2013), economics (Grunau & Pecoraro, 2017), education (Leeming, 2019), healthcare (Asiamah & Mensah, 2019), management (Hu et al, 2019), and psychology (Schaumberg & Flynn, 2012). Although it is clear that leader emergence research is multidisciplinary in nature, it is far from interdisciplinary—with many research endeavors published in management and applied psychology outlets ignoring highly relevant studies published in other disciplines.…”

The influence of small groups on leader stability and task engagement in the language classroom

“…With the exception of Leeming (2019), who showed that levels of emergent leadership predicted engagement with tasks, no studies in SLA have set out to focus on emergent leadership, although it has proven to be a factor in understanding interaction in several studies. Yashima, Ikeda, and Nakahira (2016) investigated silence in group discussions, and found that student leaders played a large role in determining the success of the interaction.…”

“…Researchers have discussed and agreed on the importance of emergent leaders in groups (Dörnyei & Murphey, 2003;Ehrman & Dörnyei, 1998), and a limited body of empirical research has shown the impact that these leaders can have on the performance of the group (Leeming, 2019;Yashima et al, 2016;Tuan & Storch, 2007). However, the extent to which leadership influences task engagement is not understood, despite being of primary concern for language teachers.…”

“…Texts used to train new teachers recommend the use of groupwork and the deliberate construction of groups based on personality or other individual difference (ID) variables (Brown & Lee, 2015), but the issue of students as leaders within groups is not discussed. Although research has investigated students’ preferences regarding group formation and longevity (Leeming, 2014), and emergent leadership in small groups (Leeming, 2019), this article is the first in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) to consider the stability of emergent leadership. Does a single student emerge as unofficial (emergent) leader and remain as leader for the duration of the group, or do emergent leaders change depending on the task or group members?…”

Collaborative Pre-Task Planning Processes and Second Language Task Performance

“…Research has shown that successful collaboration during tasks depends, to an extent, on interpersonal dynamics (Leeming, 2019). Interpersonal dynamics focuses on the relationship between two people who may be part of a group, while group dynamics focuses on the processes that occur in groups (Ehrman and Dörnyei, 1998).…”