Examining Saudi EFL dyads’ peer interaction patterns and levels of engagement in language-related episodes in synchronous video-mediated collaborative writing

Despite recent research into synchronous computer-mediated collaborative writing, little attention has been paid to dyads’ language-related episodes (LREs). By displaying dyads’ Google Docs through the Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (BBCU) videoconferencing, the present study identified the interaction patterns of 10 Saudi English as foreign language (EFL) dyads. It also examined the relationship between the interaction patterns and levels of engagement (LoE) in LREs: elaborate, partial and limited. Our analysis of the peer interactions and text construction in Google Docs captured by the BBCU records revealed five patterns of interaction: collaborative, expert/novice, dominant/dominant, dominant/passive and authoritative/responsive. The dyads produced a number of 498 LREs representing 63.4% of all negotiation episodes. Most of the LREs (N. 214/43%) were partial LREs, followed by almost similar numbers of limited LREs (N. 143/28.7%) and elaborate LREs (N. 141/28). The ANOVA tests revealed differences between the groups in their use of elaborate LREs (F(4, 45) = 494.76, p < .001, η2 = .98), partial LREs (F(4, 45) = 3.43, p = .016, η2 = .23), and limited LREs (F(4, 45) = 17.27, p < .001, η2=.61), which suggests varying LoE in LREs across the dyads according to their patterns of peer interactions. The study findings indicate that synchronous EFL dyads’ patterns of interactions were found to be associated with their LoE in LREs in synchronous collaborative writing activities.