Negotiation in group interaction: Longitudinal evidence from Chinese postgraduate EFL learners

Negotiation serves to solve communication problems in second language (L2) learners' peer interaction including negotiation of meaning (NoM), negotiation of form (NoF), negotiation of content (NoC) and negotiation of procedure (NoP). The four negotiation types are initiated through negotiation strategies. This study examined how negotiation types and negotiation strategies were distributed and how the distributions developed. The data came from five rounds of group interaction conducted by 52 Chinese postgraduate students in a semester. The findings reveal significant differences in the distributions of negotiation types and negotiation strategies. NoC occurred significantly more frequently than NoM and NoF. Each negotiation type had its major negotiation strategies and they had significantly higher percentages than the other negotiation strategies. Specifically, NoM was mostly initiated by clarification requests, NoF by recasts, NoC by explicit appeals for assistance, and NoP by direct negotiations. Both competitive and supportive growths occurred in the longitudinal trajectories. This study provides a comprehensive and developmental insight into negotiation in EFL learners' peer interaction and offers significant pedagogical implications.