Exploring EFL Students’ Social Engagement across Task-based Reading Activities

Exploring EFL Students’ Social Engagement across Task-based Reading Activities

Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc* ngocntm@vinhuni.edu.vn Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University (Vietnam); Vinh University (Vietnam)
Phan The Hoa hoapt@vinhuni.edu.vn Vinh University (Vietnam)
Summary: 
The study aims to examine how students’ social engagement develops across a sequence of task-based reading activities and to explore the indicators through which this engagement is expressed during classroom interaction. The five-week study involved 66 second-year English-major students at a Vietnamese university who participated in five collaborative reading tasks. Data collected from questionnaires administered after each task and follow-up interviews with ten selected students were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The questionnaire results show that students’ social engagement gradually increased across the task sequence and became relatively stable in the later tasks. The interview findings further indicate that students’ engagement was manifested through different forms of collaboration, including helping peers solve task difficulties, sharing and discussing ideas about the reading texts, and providing encouragement during group work. These findings may offer insight into social engagement in EFL reading by showing both how it develops across task-based reading activities and how it is expressed through practical support, shared textual understanding, and emotional encouragement. The study also suggests that task design may shape opportunities for social engagement when reading activities require peer explanation, textual justification, and mutual support.
Keywords: 
Social engagement; task-based language teaching; reading; peer interaction.
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