From Bakhtin to See the Co-construction of EFL Adult Learners’ Utterances

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to explore the effect of dialogic activities on EFL students' utterances development by engaging with others, as well as the students' perceptions in the dialogic learning environment. The theoretical framework guiding this inquiry consists of the on-site lecture from the instructor and voice board feedback from the peers and the instructor based on the dialogical theory of language concepts from Bakhtin's dialogism which emphasizes a social and interactive situation of foreign language learning by engaging with others. In this study, we cover multiple data sources that give us an overview of students' interaction in the dialogic activities: the questionnaire of voice board interactions, students' interviews, and speaking tests. The results showed, on the whole, English language learners actually developed some kind of utterances by engaging their own and others. They transformed others' utterances in the oral interaction for their own use in the Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication (ACMC) environment. Additionally, the learners perceived the voice board activities helpful for the development of their speaking abilities, while the learners' perceptions are mediated through the dialogical activities in which the learners are engaged in.